[f. SPIRE sb.2]
1. Having a tapering, sharp-pointed top; peaked.
1611. Speed, Theatr. Gt. Brit. (1614), 115. The Severne,… whose head rising from the spired mountaine Plymllimon [etc.].
1650. in Archaeol. (1779), V. 434. There is one piramide in spired pinacle of marble.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), I. 501. Black, rocky, and marked with rugged spired tops.
b. Of a steeple, tower, etc.: Provided with or carrying a spire.
Also as the second element in combs.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 248. An exceeding high spired steeple.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 334. Huge spired steeples, with a gallant ring of Bells.
1682. Wheler, Journ. Greece, II. 202. On the top of the Hill, is a round spired Tower.
1779. Mason, Eng. Gard., III. 173. Of some old Fane, whose steeple’s Gothic pride Or pinnacled, or spir’d, would bolder rise.
1888. W. E. Henley, Bk. Verses, 157. Like rampired walls the houses lean, All spired and domed and turreted.
fig. 1851. Whittier, Chapel Hermits, xix. The breaking day, which tips The golden-spired Apocalypse!
1865. E. Burritt, Walk to Land’s End, 430. A great human prayer spired with faith and towering heavenward.
2. Sharply pointed; tapering. rare.
1670–1. Narborough, Jrnl., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1694), 16. Three Tropick Birds … with a long spired Tail as big as Pigeons.
3. Of plants: Stemmed, spiked. In combs., as high-, sharp-spired.
1780. Beckford, Italy (1834), I. 263–4. Above the hut, their appearance was truly formidable, bristled over with sharp-spired dwarf aloes.
1838. Mary Howitt, Birds & Fl., 65. I love sweet flowers of every sort, High-spired or trailing low.
