[f. SPLAY v.1]
† 1. Her. = DISPLAYED ppl. a. 2. Obs.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VII. (1811), 288. Ye Emperoure was fled, leuynge his baner of the splayed egle behynde hym.
1562. J. Shute, trans. Cambini’s Turk. Wars, 3 b. He [Scanderbeg] caused to take downe the Turckes enseigne and to set vp his wt the splayed Egle of sable in a feelde of gules.
1631. Weever, Anc. Funeral Mon., 825. A Vulture splaied, which is the Crest of the Shernborns.
1659. in Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., Var. Coll. (1907), IV. 242. To adde on the same stampe on the other side the splayed eagle.
2. Expanded, extended, spread (out).
a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, IV. 787. The Quene the peping day Espyed, and nauie with splaid sailes depart The shore.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., II. (1593), 27. Doris with her daughters all, of which some cut the wals [= waves] With splaied arms.
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, A iij. They girde it out with splayed wynges, and ouer-stripp the Easterne wynds.
1770. G. White, Selborne, xxxii. The fore-hoofs were upright and shapely, the hind flat and splayed.
1863. Reader, 31 Oct., 502. The splayed vertebræ are grimly distinct—along yards on yards of spine.
1901. ‘Linesman,’ Words by Eyewitness, iii. (1902), 40. Spion Kop itself,… the thumb of the vast splayed-out hand.
3. Made or cut with a splay; slanting, bevelled:
a. Of masonry.
1823. Rutter, Fonthill, 9. The splayed jambs of the northern doorway are large.
1837. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 34/1. The bricks in the angles of the splayed work are to be neatly cut.
1865. Bellew, Blount Tempest, I. 68. The Keep presents … the same massive walls … and the same splayed windows.
1883. Specif. Alnwick & Cornhill Rlwy., 3. The bricks for the splayed corners of the piers.
b. Of boards, metal plates, etc.
1858. Skyring, Builder’s Prices, 22. Floors:… Straight joints, splayed headings, 42s.
1883. Specif. Alnwick & Cornhill Rlwy., 20. The hinges … made of wrought-iron;… the hooks to have wrought-iron plates with splayed edge.
