Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A military engine, resembling the ballista, used in Europe in the middle ages.
- noun A young person; a youth; especially, a young man.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete An active, springy young man.
- noun An ancient military engine for casting stones and arrows by means of a spring.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete An ancient
military engine for launchingstones andarrows by means of aspring .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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To which provoking words, one amongst them, called Forgier, an honest fellow of his person and a notable springal, made answer very calmly thus: How long is it since you have got horns, that you are become so proud?
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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To which provoking words, one amongst them, called Forgier, an honest fellow of his person and a notable springal, made answer very calmly thus: How long is it since you have got horns, that you are become so proud?
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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A javelin, tarred and flaming, snapped from some springal, thudded into the stem castle.
Guardsman Of Gor Norman, John, 1931- 1981
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A set of javelins, five of them, from a springal, struck from their guides by a forward-springing plank, raked the interior wall of the starboard rowing frame.
Guardsman Of Gor Norman, John, 1931- 1981
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"Not I, by the light of Heaven!" answered Prince John: "this same springal, [83-15] who conceals his name and despises our proffered hospitality, hath already gained one prize, and may now afford to let others have their turn."
Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6 Charles Herbert Sylvester
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Sam, rising to his feet, his eyes twinkling and his mask of humor on again; "sees this masked springal" -- the Hon.
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"Ha, my young springal! well met, in sooth," cried the foremost of the band, laying a firm hand upon the boy's shoulder.
In the Wars of the Roses A Story for the Young Evelyn Everett-Green 1894
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Prince John; ` ` this same springal, who conceals his name, and despises our proffered hospitality, hath already gained one prize, and may now afford to let others have their turn. ''
Ivanhoe 1892
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Sam, rising to his feet, his eyes twinkling and his mask of humor on again; "sees this masked springal" -- the Hon.
A Knight of the Cumberland John Fox 1891
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PHILEMON was used to confess how, in the fire of his callow youth and fine flower of his lustie springal days, he had been stung with murderous frenzie at view of a certaine picture of Apelles, the which in those times was showed in a temple.
The Merrie Tales Of Jacques Tournebroche 1909 Anatole France 1884
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