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.
  • transitive verb obsolete To throw out with force from a narrow orifice; to eject; to spurt out.
  • noun obsolete A shoot; a sprout.
  • 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 a spritsail 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

[Middle English, from Old English sprēot, pole; see sper- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English sprēot

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Examples

  • As for your shower, we will all be there in sprit, wishing you and your little family many blessings!

    Pregnancy update ScienceWoman 2006

  • 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

  • A long kind of sprit was held up, split at the end to receive the letters.

    A Sailor of King George Frederick Hoffman

  • If you want to give Israel a passing grade for "sprit" you can.

    IMRA Middle East News Updates 2010

  • 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.

    Disquiet » Deep Listening 1996

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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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