Also 5 spyt. [f. SPIT v.2 Cf. SPET sb.1 and Da. spyt (NFris. spüt).]
1. The fluid secreted by the glands of the mouth, esp. when ejected; saliva, spittle; a clot of this.
See also CUCKOO-SPIT, frog-spit.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 24085. Þai sput on him þair spit.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 469. Spyt, or spotle, sputum, screa, saliva.
c. 1530. Hours of Blessed Virgin, 78. His face wth spit defil’d.
1611. Cotgr., Crachat, spittle, or spit; also, a spitting.
1633. P. Fletcher, Poet. Misc., Wks. 1909, II. 256. See how with streams of spit th’ are drencht.
1700. Floyer, Cold Baths, I. 47. Temperate Bathing … ripens the Spit, and helps it up.
1747. trans. Astruc’s Fevers, 291. The yellow spits generally expectorated in a peripneumony.
1865. Morning Star, 7 Jan. The presence of ‘stour,’ or dust,… the particles of which … manifest themselves in what is called the ‘black spit.’
1904. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 10 Sept., 35. The spit ceased to be fetid.
b. Path. Spitting due to morbid condition.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 967. The men become prematurely old; they suffer from cough and spit.
2. The act of spitting; an instance of this.
a. 1658. Lovelace, Lucasta, Toad & Spider, 13. The speckl’d Toad … Defies his foe with a fell Spit.
1700. C. Nesse, Antid. Armin. (1827), 30. Fortune is but the devil’s blasphemous spit upon divine providence.
1763. C. Johnston, Reverie, I. 143. I began to hope that I should come off with a spit in the face, or a kick on the breech at worst.
1853. E. FitzGerald, Lett. (1889), I. 224. The Athenæum in which you will see a more determined spit at me.
1896. Daily News, 19 May, 8/1. Whenever Masai retire from a conference without spitting the spit of peace, squalls may be expected.
transf. 1882. Proc. R. Geogr. Soc., IV. 471. [There was] a little spit from a Mahratta musket.
b. A spit and a stride, a very short distance.
1676. Cotton, Walton’s Angler, II. 23. You are now … within a spit, and a stride of the peak.
1676. Poor Robin’s Intell., 4–11 April, 1/1. He had not gone above a spit and a stride but he meets another arch Wag.
1677. W. Hughes, Man of Sin, I. x. 44. They, I think, out-spake him, a spit and stride, who prayed unto the Pope [etc.].
1828. in Carr, Craven Gloss.
3. The very spit of, the exact image, likeness or counterpart of (a person, etc.).
1825. Knapp & Baldw., Newgate Cal., III. 497/2. A daughter,… ‘the very spit of the old captain.’
1836. T. Hook, G. Gurney, I. 202. You are a queer fellow—the very spit of your father.
1886. Macquoid, Sir J. Appleby, III. x. 143. This young chap has got his dear grandmother’s eyes, why, he’s the very spit of her.
b. With addition of fetch, image, picture.
1859. Sala, Gas-light & D., xxix. 334. He would be the very spit and fetch of Queen Cleopatra.
1869–. in dialect use (Eng. Dial. Dict.).
1895. E. Castle, Lt. of Scarthey, vi. 71. She’s like the poor lady that’s dead and gone, the spit an’ image she is.
4. A slight sprinkle or shower of rain or snow.
1849. Cupples, Green Hand, x. (1856), 90. The night was quite dark, the rain coming in sudden spits out of the wind.
1851. T. J. Taylor, Operat. Running Streams, 33. On the occurrence of a thunder spit.
1889. F. M. Peard, Paul’s Sister, III. xxvi. 138. The day was mild,… with occasional spit of rain.
5. attrib., as spit-venom; also spit-box, a spittoon; spit-curl U.S., † -insect (see quots.); spit-kid Naut., a receptacle for spit.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xviii. There was no paucity of silver dishes, basins, *spitboxes, censers, and utensils of all shapes … and sizes.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxii. Having a large spit-box always under the steps.
1890. J. Cagney, trans. Jaksch’s Clin. Diagnosis, iv. 88. The sputum has a rusty tinge…. It … adheres firmly to the spit-box.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 435. *Spit-curl, a detached lock of hair curled upon the temple; probably from having been at first plastered into shape by the saliva.
1872. De Vere, Americanisms, 324. The female ornament … is the spit-curl.
1755. Dict. Arts & Sci., IV., *Spit-insect, in zoology, the cicada with brown wings, and two white spots on them, and a double white line.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., *Spitkid.
1898. R. Kipling, Fleet in Being, 13. After dinner, as they were smoking above the spit-kids.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. ii. § 2. The *spit-venome of their poisonéd hearts breaketh out to the annoyance of others.
