Sc. and north. [Of obscure origin.]
1. intr. To spring, leap, bound; to move rapidly. Also with cognate object (quot. 1684).
1513. Douglas, Æneid, V. ix. 29. Ȝoung Hippocaon … A quhidderand arrow leit spang fra the string.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 145. Ouir dykes and dubis … they sould spang and leip. Ibid., 163. King Gald selfe … spangis vpe on horse back.
1684. Yorks. Dial., 39 (E. D. S.). Lett’s spang our geates [= ways], for it is varra snithe.
17[?]. Ramsay, To R. Yarde, 97. But when they spang o’er reason’s fence, We smart for ’t at our ain expence.
a. 1779. D. Graham, Hist. Buck-Haven, III. (1782), 21. Rob spang’d and jump’d over the boat several times.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., vii. An I could but hae gotten some decent claes in, I wad hae spanged out o’ bed.
1833. J. Rennie, Alph. Angling, p. xiv. The trout slipped off, spanged down the bank, and in an instant … was lost.
2. trans. To cast, throw, jerk, bang. Also const. about, down, up.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, XII. vi. 76. His swyft stedis hovis … Spangit vp the bludy sparkis our the bent.
1662. in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, III. 607. We haw no bow to shoot with, but spang them from of the naillis of our thowmbes.
1678. J. Brown, Life of Faith (1824), I. vii. 134. If the enemy did but spang his fingers end on you, as we say, it struck a knell to his heart.
1856. Reade, Never too late, lxv. She came up to the table with a fantastic spring and spanged down the sparkling mass on it.
1864–. in Yorks. and Linc. dial. use.
3. In combs., as spang-cockle, -toad.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., 432. Spang-tade, a deadly trick played on the poor toad.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xi. ‘Can you play at spang-cockle, my lord?’ said the Prince, placing a nut on the second joint of his forefinger, and spinning it off by a smart application of the thumb.
Hence Spanging-tree, = SPANG sb.2 4.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 607/2. One of the most simple kinds of lathe,… in which a is the footstool,… f the spanging-tree.
