Forms: 6 aspycke, 6–7 aspicke, aspike, 7 aspick, 7– aspic. [a. F. aspic asp, a. Pr. aspic, unexplained derivative of L. aspid-em, nom. aspis: see ASP2.]

1

  1.  By-form of ASP2, used chiefly in poetry.

2

1530.  Palsgr., 195/1. Aspycke sarpent, aspicq.

3

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., V. ii. 354. This is an Aspickes traile.

4

1611.  Florio, Aspide [It.], an aspike or aspe.

5

1649.  Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., I. iv. 42. A little child should boldly put his finger in the cavern of an Aspick.

6

1713.  Addison, Cato, III. v. Why did I ’scape th’invenom’d Aspic’s rage.

7

1830.  Tennyson, Dream Fair Wom., xl. Shewing the aspic’s bite.

8

  b.  attrib.

9

1742.  C. Owen, Serpents, 61. The Aspick Poison, which throws Persons into a pleasant Sleep, in which they die.

10

1807.  Lane, Lett., ix. Breath … like distillations of aspic poison.

11

  c.  fig.

12

1649.  G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., 237. Stung with the Aspicke of invadeing feare.

13

a. 1797.  H. Walpole, Mem. Geo. III. (1845), I. xviii. 261. Lord Bute … there first learned what an aspic was lodged near his bosom.

14

  2.  transf. ‘A piece of ordnance which carries a 12 pound shot. The piece itself weighs 4250 pounds.’ C. James, Mil. Dict., 1816 (Perh. only Fr.)

15