[f. SPEAR sb.2]
† 1. Of grass: Hard and stiff. Obs.
1577. Harrison, England, 37 b/2. Where … blewe claye aboundeth … there the grasse is speary, rough, and very apt for bushes.
1652. Blithe, Eng. Improver Impr., 11. They beare little, or no grasse, a little wild Time, and speary harsh grasse, that cattell [printed catetll] eate not.
2. Resembling a spear or spears; slender and sharp-pointed; keen.
1820. Hogg, in Blackw. Mag., VI. 464. The speary wood Groans to the blast.
1822. Moir, Ibid. XI. 305. The bordering reeds exalt higher their speary summits.
1855. Fraser’s Mag., LI. 95. Speary sleet and driving snow.
1872. Howells, Wedding Journ. (1892), 143. Dark evergreens that … point their speary tops above the crest of bluffs.
3. Consisting of spears; waged with spears.
1810. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XXIX. 417. Thread of Roman entrails twin’d in the speary loom they strain.
1888. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, I. 25. Better him were to comb his beard … at home, than show his fine skin to … their speary warfare.
