Also 5 spar. [f. SPARE v.1 and a. Cf. Norw. and obs. G. spar the act of sparing or saving.]
† 1. The fact of leaving unhurt or unharmed; sparing; leniency, mercy. In the phrases without spare and to make (no, etc.) spare. Obs.
(a) a. 1300. Cursor M., 2909. Bot þan com dome [= doom] witouten spare, To þaa þat lang was spared are.
c. 1380. Antecrist, 136, in Todd, Three Treat. Wyclif (1851), If þai wil noght turn til his lare, He sal þam sla wituten spare.
a. 1425. Cursor M., 3974 (Trin.). Iacob dred esau sare, For he was fel wiþouten spare.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., 139. To wipe away all shamefull dishonour, as whetting their anger against such … perfidious enemies, without spare.
(b) 1591. in Bacon, Genesis New Eng. Ch. (1874), 127. They have made no spare or conscience to accuse … and punish us.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., 80. Our souldiors … rifled rich villages full of corne and cattell, making spare of none.
1620. trans. Boccaccio’s Decam., 4. Little lesse spare was made in the villages round about.
1633. Bp. Hall, Hard T., 421. Cut them off … and make no spare of any of them.
2. The exercise of economy, frugality or moderation. Chiefly in the phrase to make (no, etc.) spare.
1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., etc. P j. To spende and make no spare, he must himselfe incline.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. i. 51. Whiles fruitfull Ceres, and Lyæus fat, Pourd out their plenty, without spight or spare.
1643. Trapp, Comm. Gen. xlvii. 14. Bidden to eate … what he pleased, and make no spare.
1850. F. S. Merryweather, Glimmerings in Dark, 36. The canons of the Church … injoined them to be bountiful in their charity, and to use no spare in their hospitality.
1891. Spectator, 19 Sept., 377/2. We may be able to make shift with 19 million quarters of foreign and Colonial Wheat. It is certainly desirable to make spare, as we may do if we have an abundant potato-crop.
b. Const. of. (Common c. 1600–40.)
1577. Knewstub, Confut., R j. He hath plentifully powred out, and made no spare of it, thorow out the whole yeare.
1579. Twyne, Phis. agst. Fortune, II. xliii. 218 b. There must be no spare of the rod.
1626. Bacon, New Atl. (1650), 1. By which time our Victuals failed us, though we had made good spare of them.
1648. J. Goodwin, Right & Might well met, 8. They made no spare of their owne deare lives.
1655. trans. Sorel’s Com. Hist. Francion, II. 32. At our meal there was no spare of liquor.
1832. trans. Tour German Prince, IV. 77. There are a thousand men and two hundred horses in action, and no spare of gunpowder.
† c. At spare, with poor or little food or entertainment; poorly, frugally. Obs.–1
1585. Earl Leycester, Corr. (Camden), 462. Most of the noblemen and gentlemen lodged that night at spare in Harwiche.
3. In various elliptical uses of the adj.: A spare or reserve sum of money; a spare room; a spare part, tool, tire, etc., carried esp. by motorists to replace a breakage or supply a sudden emergency.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xvi. 321. Reserving a spare for all events and accidentall occasions.
1868. Dickens, in Lett. (1880), II. 355. To provide and lay down new Brussels carpets in the front spare and the two top spares.
1906. Daily Chron., 24 April, 3/3. He recommends … a complete spare magneto. I wonder if he has ever really carried such a ‘spare.’
1908. Motor Boat, 5 March, 133/1. The best method of dealing with spares is to have a chest made to carry all the spares you require.
4. U.S. In ten-pins: The knocking down of all the pins with two bowls (thus leaving one ‘to spare’), or with the first bowl (= double spare); the score for doing this.
1879. Daily News, 2 Sept., 3/1. Younger people … sought out the American ten-pin alleys,… and, in striving for ‘spares’ and ‘double-spares,’ esteemed themselves far in advance of their wise elders.
1884. H. C. Bunner, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 299/2. Strikes and spares were less common then.
