[f. SPAR sb.1 Cf. MDu. and MHG. sparren, ON. and MSw. sparra, older Da. sparre, in sense 1.]
1. trans. To furnish, make, or close in, with spars. Also fig.
1657–8. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 97. Extraordinary repaires … for slating and sparring ye chappell.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 52. For these purposes, one or more stalls may be sparred to the top.
a. 1851. Moir, Snow, xii. Poet. Wks. 1852, II. 388. The mill-wheel sparr’d with icicles, Reflects her silver ray.
1894. Stevenson, Lett. (1899), II. 333. I have a room now, a part of the twelve-foot verandah sparred in, at the most inaccessible end of the house.
2. Naut. a. In pa. pple.: Provided with spars.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxiv. She … [was] heavily sparred, with sails cut to a t.
1894. Times, 12 May, 9/3. The vessel … was snugly sparred and canvased for the passage.
b. To fix spars across (the rigging) preparatory to rattling down.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 35. Commence sparring the rigging.
c. U.S. ‘To aid (a vessel) over a shallow bar by the use of spars and tackles’ (Cent. Dict.).
1883. American, VI. 40. At low water, the vessel has often to be sparred over sand-bars.
