Also 9 spansel, spencill. [f. prec.]
1. trans. To fetter or hobble with a spancel or spancels.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. xxvi. 184. He beareth Sable a Horse passant Argent, Spanceled on both legs of the neerer side. Ibid. Albeit this Horse be now Spanceled as you see.
1820. J. Oxley, Jrnls. Two Exped. into Australia, 47. The animals [horses] were all spencilled, but such is the scarcity of both water and grass, that they will wander in search of each.
1825. T. C. Croker, Fairy Leg. S. Irel., I. 333. Neither could his neighbours’ cattle have been guilty of the trespass, for they were spancelled.
1882. Mrs. Heckford, Lady Trader in Transvaal, 260. It is the fashion in Africa to spancel a horse by tying its head to one of its legs.
fig. 1844. Sir C. Napier, Lett. to H. Napier, in Life (1862), III. 153. Gough himself is all right, only spancelled by his staff; they wanted to tie my legs too, but I kicked the pail over, and spoiled the milking.
2. transf. (See quot.) U.S.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 431. To spancel,… to prevent a crab from biting, by sticking the point of a leg into the base of each movable claw.
Hence Spancelled ppl. a.
1835. Fraser’s Mag., XI. 142. We should be about as much in a fit state … as … a spancelled pig to run a race with a greyhound.
1899. Somerville & Martin, Irish R. M., 267. Driving two brace of coupled and spancelled goats.
