Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A pole that extends diagonally across a fore-and-aft sail from the lower part of the mast to the peak of the sail.
 - noun A bowsprit.
 
from The Century Dictionary.
- To sprout; bud; germinate, as barley steeped for malt.
 - To throw out with force from a narrow orifice; eject; spurt.
 - noun   A rush: same as 
sprat , 1. - noun See the quotation.
 - noun A sprout; a shoot.
 - noun A stick; a pole; especially, a boatman's pole.
 - noun Nautical:
 - noun A small pole, spar, or boom which crosses the sail of a boat diagonally from the mast to the upper aftmost corner, which it is used to extend and elevate.
 - noun The bowsprit.
 - To split.
 
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To sprout; to bud; to germinate, as barley steeped for malt.
 - noun obsolete A shoot; a sprout.
 - transitive verb obsolete To throw out with force from a narrow orifice; to eject; to spurt out.
 - noun (Naut.) A small boom, pole, or spar, which crosses the sail of a boat diagonally from the mast to the upper aftmost corner, which it is used to extend and elevate.
 
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical  A 
spar between mast and upper outer corner of aspritsail on sailing boats. 
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a light spar that crosses a fore-and-aft sail diagonally
 
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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As for your shower, we will all be there in sprit, wishing you and your little family many blessings!
Pregnancy update ScienceWoman 2006
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The sprit is a long pole, one end of which is fixed to the lowest _innermost_ corner, near the mast, and the other end extending to the highest _outermost_ corner; thus it lies diagonally across the sail.
Man on the Ocean A Book about Boats and Ships R. [Illustrator] Richardson 1859
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A long kind of sprit was held up, split at the end to receive the letters.
A Sailor of King George Frederick Hoffman
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If you want to give Israel a passing grade for "sprit" you can.
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And that’s kind of really good, for us, because there’s a mayor who’s really interested in the arts, and who is very supportive, and there’s an entrepreneurial sprit, which is very creative rather than relying on some big institution.
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Hegel is neither a theist or an atheist: he is moving to transcend the whole game, and speaks only of 'sprit', a dangerous term that will cause him perhaps to slide back into the morass of the bad dialectic of divinity.
Darwiniana 2009
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And as a feminine sprit, gay males are allowed to imitate and worship her.
Irene Monroe: The Roots Of Voodoo's Acceptance Of Gays Irene Monroe 2011
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And as a feminine sprit, gay males are allowed to imitate and worship her.
Irene Monroe: The Roots Of Voodoo's Acceptance Of Gays Irene Monroe 2011
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In the sprit of change the Not Boyfriend and I swapped sides of the bed a while ago.
Archive 2009-05-01 Another Outspoken Female 2009
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Just to add a little bit more, If I am not allowed to carry a sharp object of any kind onto a plane including nail clippers, why can I carry wine a sprit bottles.
Living In A Police State – (Thank Goodness). « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009
 
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