Obs. Also 5 splatt, 5–6 splatte, 5 (8–9) splate; pa. pple. 5, 7 splat. [Obscurely related to SPLET v. and SPLIT v. Cf. also SPLATE v.]
1. trans. To cut up, to split open; esp. to dress (a pike) in this manner for cooking.
In later use only as a traditional entry from lists of ‘proper’ terms.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 14008. He layde him as brod & flat As is a pike when he is splat.
a. 1440. Sir Eglam., 490. To splatt the bore they wente fulle tyte, Ther was no knyfe that wolde hym byte.
c. 1450. Two Cookery-bks., 101. Take the pike, and roste him splat on a gredire. Ibid., 105. Take a tenche, and splat him, and roste him on a gredire.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 23 § 1. Every suche fisshe shuld be splatted downe to a handfull of the taille.
1513. Bk. Keruynge, in Babees Bk. (1868), 265. Splatte that pyke.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew., II. ii. 57. A Gigget of Mutton which is the legge splatted and halfe part of the loine together.
[1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 78. Splat that Pike. (Also in Phillips, Bailey, etc.)
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 169. Splate a pike, cut him up.
1853. Fraser’s Mag., XLVIII. 694. The reader will remember … that he gobbets trout,… splates pike,… and sides haddock.]
2. Of a horse: To strain (the shoulder).
Cf. SPLAITING vbl. sb.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb., I. 30. There be many infirmities which make a Horse halt, as … splatting the shoulder, shoulder pight, straines in ioynts, and such like.
3. To spread out flat.
1615. W. Lawson, Orch. & Gard., iii. (1623), 8. And where, or when, did you euer see a great tree packt on a wall? Nay, who did euer know a tree so vnkindly splat, come to age?
