Also 4 spyrakle, 5 -acle. [ad. L. spīrācul-um SPIRACULUM. So older F. spiracle, F. spiracule, It. spiracolo, -aculo, Sp. and Pg. espiraculo.]
† 1. Breath, spirit. Obs.
Orig. after L. spiraculum vitae in Gen. ii. 7, vii. 22.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 408. Þenne mourkne in þe mudde most ful nede Alle þat spyrakle in-spranc.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., III. iii. (1495), 50. A soule is lyke to god a spiracle of lyfe. Ibid., 51. Oracliphīcus [sic] callyth the soule lyghte other a spyrancle [sic] of beynge.
1607. B. Barnes, Devil’s Charter, IV. ii. A bastard of our house,… In whom no sparke or spiracle of honor Appear’d.
1640. G. Watts, trans. Bacon’s Adv. Learn., IV. iii. 207. We will stile that part of the generall knowledge concerning mans soule, the knowledge of the spiracle, or inspired substance.
1654. Vilvain, Theorem. Theol., Suppl. 261. Into which [body] he breathed the Spiracle or Spirit of Life.
2. A small opening by which a confined space has communication with the outer air; esp. an air-hole or air-shaft.
1620. trans. Boccaccio’s Decam., 126. A cave … which received no light into it, but by a small spiracle or ventloope made out ingeniously on the hills side.
1661. Evelyn, Fumifugium, Misc. Writ. (1825), I. 220. Salt and sope boylers,… one of whose Spiracles does manifestly infect the aer more than all the chimnies of London.
1760–72. trans. Juan & Ulloa’s Voy. (ed. 3), I. 472. There must have been here and there vent-holes, or spiracles.
1851. Hawthorne, Ho. Sev. Gables, i. 16. The seven gables … presented the aspect of a whole sisterhood of edifices, breathing through the spiracles of one great chimncy.
1856. J. Stevenson, Ch. Historians Eng., IV. II. 437. On splitting a vast rock … there appeared two dogs, but without any spiracle whatever.
fig. 1827. Scott, Napoleon, Misc. Wks. 1870, XIV. 326. The least spiracle, by which the voice of France could find its way to the ears of her sovereign.
b. spec. An opening in the ground affording egress to subterranean vapors or fiery matter; a volcanic vent-hole.
1671. R. Bohun, Wind, 27. Wind, out of some cavityes and spiracles of the Earth.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, III. (1723), 151. The Camini or Spiracles of Ætna.
1751. Lavington, Enthus. Meth. & Papists, III. (1754), 120. Some Spiracles, or breathing Holes, in many Parts of the Earth, which scatter a pestilential Infection upon all that come near.
1762. trans. Busching’s Syst. Geog., I. 216. The clefts and chasms which were the spiracles or outlets to those dreadful eructations.
1828. H. D. Beste, Italy, 399. Other spiracles of mephitic might probably be found here.
1833. Herschel, Astron., v. 209. Powerful upward currents of the [sun’s] atmosphere, arising, perhaps, from spiracles in the body.
1869. J. Phillips, Vesuv., viii. 209. A level place surrounded by fiery heights, having numerous chimney-like spiracles.
fig. 1833. Carlyle, Misc. Ess., Diderot. The subterranean fire … was here, we can say, forming itself a decided spiracle.
3. a. A pore of the skin. rare.
1650. H. Brooke, Conserv. Health, 43. It [exercise] discusses Vapors and fuliginous excrements by the pores or Spiracles of the skin.
1837. J. Morier, Abel Allnutt, xxxii. 188. The steam and fumes of the dinner … acting violently upon the spiracles of the skin belonging to the attendants.
b. A breathing-pore in the epidermis of plants; a stoma. rare.
a. 1774. Goldsm., Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776), II. 108. This undulation is very manifest in the spiracles of many plants viewed with the microscope.
1867. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., iii. (1870), 56. The whole stem being succulent and covered with spiracles or air-holes, thus acting as lungs along with the leaves.
c. Zool. A special aperture, orifice, or pore, chiefly in lower forms of animal life, by which respiration is effected.
1775. Phil. Trans., LXVI. 214. The torpedo … loosens the sands by flapping its fins, till its whole body, except the spiracles, is buried.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 716/1. The teeth [of the saw-fish] are granulated;… and the spiracles five.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxi. (1818), II. 251. From a small hole just above each spiracle, [the insect] syringes a similar fluid in horizontal jets.
1847. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 234. Prothoracic spiracle in most cases free and uncovered.
1882. Entomol. Mag., March, 220. A broad … stripe runs just above the spiracles, which are black.
transf. 1854. De Quincey, War, Wks. 1862, IV. 286. The great phenomenon of war … keeps open in man a spiracle—an organ of respiration.
d. The blow-hole of a whale or other cetacean (and of certain sharks).
1796. Burke, Lett. to Noble Lord, Wks. VIII. 35. His whale-bone, his blubber, the very spiracles through which he spouts a torrent of brine against his origin.
1849. Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, III. 146. The spiracle, or blow-hole, is a single orifice of a semicircular form, on the top of the head, directly over the eyes.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 192. But a whale can no more force water through its spiracle or blow-hole than you or I through our nostrils.
