Also 7 spyle. [a. MDu. or MLG. spīle (Du. dial., WFris. and LG. spile; Du. spijl, NFris. spīl, G. speil), splinter, wooden pin or peg, skewer, etc.]
1. north. dial. and † Sc. A splinter, chip, or narrow strip, of wood; a spill.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, IX. ix. 42. Sum stekyt throu the cost with spilis of tre Lay gaspand.
1540. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VII. 486. For glew, to glew on the spilis upoun ane patrown of ane gun.
1634. Lowe’s Chirurg., (ed. 3), 111. The tumor being opened,… you must separate the [membrane] … gently from the flesh, either with your Spyle or other fit instrument proper to pull it out.
1671. Skinner, Etymol. Ling. Angl., s.v., A Spile or Spill.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 242/2. Two wedges made out of one piece, and two spiles. Ibid. He … drives in a wooden spile, which immediately stops the leak.
1869. Peacock, Lonsdale Gloss., 79/1. Spile, a splinter.
1894. Heslop, Northumbld. Gloss., 677. Thor’s a spile run into ma finger.
2. A small plug of wood for stopping the vent of a cask; a vent-peg; a spigot. Chiefly dial.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 573. Have near the Bung-hole a little Vent-hole stopp’d with a Spile.
1796–. in many dial. glossaries.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, I. v. 72. He knelt down to pull out the spile.
1896. Sun, 11 Dec., 3/2. A number of spiles for extracting spirit from casks.
fig. 1836. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. I. xvi. This Province is like that are tree;… and if they don’t drive in a spile and stop the everlastin flow of the sap, it will perish altogether.
b. U.S. A small wooden or metal spout for conducting sap from the sugar-maple.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2268/1. A notch is cut by an axe in the tree above the spile.
1879. J. Burroughs, Locusts & Wild Honey, 9. The bees get their first taste of sweet from the sap as it flows from the spiles.
3. techn. (See quot. and cf. SPILL sb.1 3.)
1750. Blanckley, Nav. Expos., 156. Spiles are small Wood Pins, which are drove into the Nail-holes, when a Ship’s Sheathing is taken off. [Hence in some later nautical Dicts.]
4. attrib. and Comb., as spile-borer, -hole, -peg, -tap.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Spile-hole,… the air-hole in a cask. Spile-peg,… the wooden peg closing the hole for the admission of air into a cask when it is tapped.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2268/1. Spile-borer, an auger-bit to bore out stuff for spiles.
1885. Whitby Times, 31 July, 2/6. Bar, &c.—Trays, waiters,… screws, spring spile taps, crushers.
