Also 5 Sc. spayn, 7 spanne. [f. SPAN sb.1 Cf. OE. ymbspannan and spanning; G. spannen (rare), Icel., Norw., Sw. spanna, ON. spenna, OF. espaner, in similar senses. The form spayn is peculiar: see note to SPAN sb.1]
1. trans. † 1. To grasp, lay hold of, seize. Obs.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, III. 582. And newys … That wont to spayn gret speris war, Swa spaynyt aris that [etc.].
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xxxviii. (Bodl. MS.). [The dragon] lurkeþ in weies where þe Elephaunte goþ and bindeþ and spanneþ his legges and sleeþ hym and strangeleþ hym.
c. 1420. Avow. Arth., xiii. Thenne the kinge spanos his spere, Opon that bore for to bere.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, III. iii. 111. Doun fallis sailis, the airis sone we span.
2. To measure by means of the outstretched hand; to cover with the hand in this way.
† To span farthings, to play at span-farthing.
1560. Bible (Geneva), Isaiah xlviii. 13. My right hand hathe spanned the heauens.
1570. Levins, Manip., 20. To span, palmare.
1621. T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 185. That we should take vpon vs to spanne with our fingers, and measure with our arme the miracles of God.
1688. Penton, Guardian’s Instruction (1897), 50. His main design is to … go home again to spanning farthings.
1706. Stevens, Span. Dict., I. Xéme, half a Foot, or as much as a Man can span with his Thumb and Fore-finger.
1818. Keats, Endym., I. 499. For still, with Delphic emphasis, she spann’d The quick invisible strings [of the lute].
1866. Brogden, Prov. Lincs., Span, to measure a distance by flattening the hand and stretching the thumb and middle finger.
1899. N. & Q., 9th Ser. III. 185/1. So that he could span the distance by the fingers of the hand.
† b. To measure in any way. Obs.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., i. Wks. 1851, III. 99. To comprehend the hidden causes of things, and span in his thoughts all the various effects that passion … can worke in mans nature. Ibid. (1648), Sonn. To H. Lawes. Harry, whose tuneful and well measur’d Song First taught our English Musick how to span Words with just note and accent.
1717. T. Tickell, Ep. fr. Lady, 3. Oft on the well-known Spot I fix my Eyes, And Span the Distance that between us lies.
† c. To measure out; to set a limit or bound to (life, etc.). Obs.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., I. i. 223. My life is spand already: I am the shadow of poore Buckingham.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Bunch of Grapes, ii. For as the Jews of old by God’s command Travell’d, and saw no town; So now each Christian hath his journeys spann’d.
1657. Bp. H. King, Elegy on G. Adolphus, Poems (1843), 71. Death hath spann’d thee.
d. To encircle or encompass (the waist, wrist, etc.) with the hand or hands.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 155. She recollects her youth, And tells, not always with an eye to truth, Who spann’d her waist.
1797–1809. Coleridge, Three Graves, IV. xi. And oft she said, I’m not grown thin! And then her wrist she spanned.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xxiv. ‘If I ever am in your list, I presume it will be for a case of plethora,’ replied Jerry, spanning his thin waist.
1841. Browning, Pippa Passes, iii. Poet. Wks. 1863, II. 54. How your plump arms … have dropped away! Why, I can span them!
3. Of the rainbow, a bridge, etc.: To form an arch across or over (the sky, a river, etc.); to stretch or extend over in the form of an arch; to cross from side to side. Also transf. or fig.
(a) 1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Content, v. This soul doth span the world, and hang content From either pole unto the centre.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IV. 418. He looks down On all that soars; and spans immensity.
1781. Cowper, Table-T., 702. Fancy, that from the bow that spans the sky Brings colours.
1816. Shelley, To Peacock, 12 July. A rainbow spanned the lake.
1866. Neale, Seq. & Hymns, 123. O, sweet Rainbow,… That some day, One Onely Church shall span.
a. 1881. Rossetti, House of Life, xii. Two souls softly spann’d With one o’erarching heaven of smiles and sighs.
(b) 1736. N. Hawksmoor, London Bridge, 40. The Bridge at Rochester … spans a noble and deep River, 550 Feet wide.
1833. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Loire, 7. The bridge … spans the stream with nine wide arches.
1853. Sir H. Douglas, Milit. Bridges (ed. 3), 177. The width [of the river] here was 700 feet, and twenty-seven boats were required to span it.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 201. Its waters are spanned by a fine stone bridge.
b. transf. To reach or extend over (space or time).
1624. Donne, Devot. (ed. 2), 63. Our thoughts,… that doe not only bestride all the Sea, & Land, but span the Sun and Firmament at once.
1872. Liddon, Some Elem. Relig., ii. 39. His thought spans the intervening desert.
1879. A. W. Ward, Chaucer, i. 5. Chaucer’s life … spans rather more than the latter half of the fourteenth century.
4. a. To stretch out (the thumb) as in spanning.
1676. Mace, Musick’s Mon., 74. Bring up your Left-Hand from the Table, bended, just like the Talents of a Hawk; All, excepting your Thumb, which must stand Strait; and Span’d out.
b. To throw as an arch or bridge.
a. 1861. T. Woolner, My Beautiful Lady, Day Dream, 30. Clutching at rainbows spanned across the sky!
5. To throw a bridge across (a river, etc.); to bridge over.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 176. Telford spanned both these straits with suspension road bridges.
1876. Routledge, Discoveries, 1. Science has spanned great rivers and estuaries with bridges of form unknown to our fathers.
transf. 1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), II. 54. He is the mediator who spans the chasm which divides them.
1876. Blackie, Songs Relig. & Life, 233. Not in vain God with lavish blooms of beauty Spanned the slope, and sowed the plain.
b. To cross (a bridge). rare–1.
1894. H. Gardener, Unoff. Patriot, 121. The Long Bridge was spanned and the strange party drove down Pennsylvania Avenue.
II. absol. 6. To make a span over something; to reach with or as with a span; to stretch or range from one place or point to another. Chiefly fig.
1535. Coverdale, Isaiah xlviii. 13. My honde is the foundacion of the earth, & my right honde spanneth ouer the heauens.
1592. Lyly, Midas, V. iii. 104. Though my hande bee golde, yet I must not thinke to span ouer the maine Ocean.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., VI. xiii. (1821), 300. The prophetical spirit … is most quick, spanning as it were from the centre to the circumference.
1657. Bp. H. King, Elegy on G. Adolphus, Poems (1843), 71. Thou might’st Vienna reach, and after span From Mulda to the Baltick Ocean.
1899. N. & Q., 9th Ser. III. 185/1. If he … spanned accordingly, the button of the first player became his.
7. Whaling. (See quot.)
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 526/2. If the whale is ‘spanning’ i.e., swimming in a decided direction and appearing at the surface at intervals more or less regular, less caution is observed.
