subs. (colloquial).—1. A speaking likeness; orig. ‘as like as if he’d spit it’; usually in phrase ‘the SPIT of (someone named).’—GROSE. Fr. C’est son père tout crachè.
1602. BRETON, Wonders Worth the Hearing, 8. Twoo girles for the purpose, the one as like an Owle, the other AS LIKE an Vrchin, AS IF they had beene SPITTE OUT OF THE MOUTHES of them.
1675. COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft, 274.
| Pan. Nay, I’m as like my Dad, in sooth, | |
| As he had SPIT me OUT ON’S MOUTH. | |
| Ibid., Scarronides, or Virgile Travestie, iv. (1770), 60. | |
| I dare be sworn ’twas thou did’st get him, | |
| He’s e’en as like thee as th’ had’st SPIT him. |
1698. FARQUHAR, Love and a Bottle, i. 1. Poor child! he’s as like his own dadda as if he were SPIT OUT OF HIS MOUTH.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, xiii. He is the very moral of you, and as like as if he had been SPIT OUT OF YOUR own MOUTH.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, II. 488. The very SPIT of the one I had for years; it’s a real portrait.
2. (old cant).—A sword (GROSE).
1613. PURCHAS, Pilgrimage, 309. Going naked with a SPITTE on his shoulder.
3. (printers’).—An obelisk or dagger; †: used as a reference mark.
d. 1656. JOSEPH HALL, To Hugh Cholmley [LATHAM]. Either your starres or your SPITS … shall be welcome to my margent.
Verb. (colloquial).—1. To show signs of rain: also as subs. = drops of rain.
1818. S. E. FERRIER, Marriage, vii. ‘And’—putting her hand out of the window—‘I think it’s SPITTING already.’
d. 1870. DICKENS, Sketches by Boz, vii. It had been ‘SPITTING’ with rain for the last half-hour, and now began to pour in good earnest.
1887. C. D. WARNER, Their Pilgrimage, 175. SPITS of rain dashed in their faces.
2. (venery).—To foraminate a woman.
PHRASES.—A SPIT AND A STRIDE = a very short distance; TO SPIT AT ONE = to insult; TO SPIT IT OUT = to speak plainly; TO SPIT WHITE (WHITE BROTH, or SIXPENCES) = to expectorate from a dry but healthy mouth: Fr. cracher des pièces de dix sous; TO PUT FOUR QUARTERS ON THE SPIT = to know carnally.
1594. J. LYLY, Mother Bombie, iii. 2. Half. That makes them SPIT WHITE BROATH, as they doe.
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry IV., i. 2, 237. If it be a hot day, and I brandish anything but a bottle, I would I might never SPIT WHITE again. Ibid. (1603), Measure for Measure, ii. 1. As she SPIT IN HIS FACE, so she defied him.
1622. MASSINGER, The Virgin Martyr, iii. 3. Had I been a pagan still, I should not have SPIT WHITE for want of drink.
1772. R. GRAVES, The Spiritual Quixote, IV. vi. He had thought it rather a dry discourse; and beginning to SPIT SIX-PENCES (as his saying was), he gave hints to Mr. Wildgoose to stop at the first public-house they should come to.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 371. You have no one to quarrel with but yourself; for I do not see so much as a cat TO SPIT AT you.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 123. ‘You must SPIT IT OUT a bit!’ I yelled, and Ike began once more.
