[f. SPIRT v.1 Cf. SPURT sb.3]
1. A jet or slender spout of water or other liquid.
1716. Gay, Trivia, III. 106. Water, dash’d from fishy Stalls, shall stain His hapless Coat with Spirts of scaly Rain.
1840. Browning, Sordello, IV. 135. In the centre spreads … A laver, broad and shallow, one bright spirt Of water bubbles in.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., IV. i. A great spirt of blood burst from his nose.
1879. J. Burroughs, Locusts & Wild Honey, 120. There was a spirt or two of rain.
b. The sound made by a jet of liquid.
1874. T. Hardy, Far fr. Mad. Crowd, iii. I. 26. Soon a soft spirt, alternating with a loud spirt, came in regular succession from within the shed.
2. A sudden jet of fire, or puff of smoke.
1851. Hawthorne, Snow Image (1879), 111. Looking at the little spirts of fire.
1871. Meredith, H. Richmond, xxix. He sent out quick spirts of smoke rolling into big volumes.
1878. Browning, Poets Croisic, 21. Spirt and spirt Of fire from our brave billet’s either edge.
fig. 1879. Browning, Ivan Ivanovitch, 23. Man’s inch of masterdom,—spot of life, spirt of fire,—To star the dark and dread.
