Also 7 spil. [app. a. Du. spil (MDu. spille) or LG. (MLG.) spille, G. spille (OHG. spilla), spindle, axis, pin, stalk, etc., app. for original *spinla, f. spin- SPIN v. In some senses perh. associated with prec.]
† 1. A small cylinder upon which yarn is wound; a spool. Obs.
1594. H. Willobie, Avisa, 38. Her Spill was neuer fully spone, For night vndid that day had done. Ibid., 39. The Spindle that you see me driue, Hath fyld the spill so often trend.
1615. Hieron, Wks., I. 604. I will, now (as the vse in spinning is) that I haue … twisted this threed, briefly wind it vpon the spill.
2. A rod or stalk of wood, metal, etc.
1594. Carew, Tasso (1881), 71. A sepulchre of Cipresse sweete they stall Their Barricados neere, and highest spill Of Palme tree with his boughs orespreads it all. Ibid. (1602), Cornwall, 30 b. The Oysters … haue a peculiar dredge, which is a thicke strong net, fastned to three spils of yron, and drawne at the boates sterne. Ibid., 124 b. One of the boyes conuerted the spill of an old candlesticke to a gunne.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 118. A bridle … should be fixed on the beam by a nut and screw, and passed down the spill with a lip, to grasp the head end of the sole.
1844. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., VII. 190/2. The ‘button clack’ … was a disc of metal with a central spill or stalk, which rose and fell in a guide.
1881. Greener, Gun, 236. By using more packing, or a larger spill, the same bit may be used to bore several sizes out of a barrel.
† b. A stem-like root. Also spill-root. Obs.
1766. Museum Rust., VI. 29. Mr. Lewis says it [sc. burnet-haulm] runs down in a spill six or eight inches.
1796. Trans. Soc. Arts, XIV. 260. I do not suppose the transplanted ones will answer, having but one spill-root.
c. Of a gun: = NIPPLE sb. 3.
1823. Specif. J. Day’s Patent, No. 4861, Nipple or spill to receive the copper percussion caps.
3. A pin or slender rod upon which anything turns; a spindle.
1730. Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 337. This is to be kept in Motion by a Gut-string (as the Spill of a Spinning-Turn is moved). Ibid. (1762), LII. 510. A large spill of iron, on which there is a brass weather-cock. Ibid. (1770), LXI. 74. It is remarkable that the spill was found in the bell-chamber, and the weather-cock in the battlements.
1881. Young, Ev. Man his own Mechanic, § 1486. 671. The spill that connects the handles and keys with the lever that acts on the catch [of the lock].
1888–. in s.w. dial. glossaries.
