[f. SPOUT v.]
1. The action of issuing or discharging in a spout or stream.
1611. Cotgr., Sourgeon,… the rising, boyling, or spouting vp of water in a spring.
1665. Glanvill, Def. Van. Dogm., 34. No more difficulty in this Hypothesis, then in the direct spouting of water out of a pipe.
1796. T. Twining, Trav. India, etc. (1894), 17. I had once considered the spouting of whales as a fabulous exageration.
1839. Beale, Sperm Whale (ed. 2), 44. At the termination of this breathing time, or as whalers say, when he has his ‘spoutings out,’ the head sinks slowly.
1889. Nature, 21 March, 482. The waste occasioned by ‘spouting’ [of oil-wells] is at times enormous.
b. attrib., as spouting-canal, -hole, -tube.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 581/1. The orifice of the spouting hole … is situated towards the summit of the head.
1840. F. D. Bennett, Narr. Whaling Voy., II. 151. The spouting-canal [in the whale] may perform both the offices attributed to it.
1845. Encycl. Metrop., VII. 344/1. The Gangetic Dolphin is remarkable for … a roof over the spouting apparatus. Ibid. The passage of the spouting tube.
2. Declamation or recitation; speech-making, speechifying.
1788. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T. (ed. 2), Spouting, theatrical declamation.
1805. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), II. 185. There was much spouting, and some handsome speaking.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxiv. To be freed … from the dreary spouting of the Reverend Bartholomew Irons.
1893. H. Vizetelly, Glances Back, I. xvii. 327. Spouting was a positive passion with Hannay.
attrib. 1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. xiv. 110. The spouting action of a player.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansf. Park, xiii. For anything of the acting, spouting, reciting kind, I think he has always a decided taste.
1884. E. Yates, Recoll., iii. ‘The Lays of Ancient Rome’ had been favourite spouting-pieces at Highgate.
b. Spouting club (or society), a society meeting for the purpose of practising recitation, declamation or oratory.
1756. A. Murphy, Apprentice, I. i. A Spouting-Club, friend Gargle!—What’s a Spouting-Club? Ibid., II. i. The Spouting-Club,… the Members … roaring out Bravo.
1781. V. Knox, Lib. Educ., § 20. Neither is it desirable, that he should acquire that love … of declaiming, which may introduce him to spouting clubs, or disputing societies.
1806. H. Siddons, Maid, Wife, & Widow, II. 146. He was a great orator at the spouting societies.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, lxii. Many a Spouting-Club orator would turn the Bishops out of the House of Lords to-morrow.
