verb. (Winchester).—See quots.
c. 1840. MANSFIELD, School-Life at Winchester College (1866), 235. when a boy suffered some injury himself in order to spite another person; or, having in some way injured another, received punishment, he was said to be SPITING Gabell. Dr. Gabell was formerly Head-master, and the extreme inexpediency of attempting to annoy him gave rise to the proverb.
1891. R. G. K. WRENCH, Winchester Word-Book, s.v. SPITE. The word in Wykehamical usage generally connoted the frame of mind rather than the acts in which it finds expression. But the phrase ‘TO SPITE GABELL,’ describes the act popularly known as ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face.’
