Now dial. and rare. [a. MDu. splete (WFlem. splete), spleet (Du. spleet) or MLG. (and LG.) splete, NFris. splēt, related to SPLIT v.] A small strip of split wood or willow.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., iii. § 9. If the hiue be then fourteene inches ouer within, it may wel receiue foure spleets.
1657. S. Purchas, Pol. Flying-Ins., 60. Mr. Southern and others … advise, that if Bees finde fault with a Hive, and will not continue in it, to pull out the spleats.
a. 1679. Sir J. Moore, Eng. Interest (1703), 104. Your Hive being pruned put in your spleets.
1704. Dict. Rust. (1726), s.v. Bee-hives, Either Wicker-Hives made with Spleets of Wood,… or Straw-Hives.
1766. Museum Rust., VI. 2. Bind their stems together with a spleet of willow, or some tough wood. Ibid., 3. A small wreath, made of spleet, is slipped on the upper end of the staff.
1899–. in Eng. Dial. Dict.
Hence † Spleet v.1 trans., to fit (a bee-hive) with slips of wood. Obs.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., iii. § 9. This is the easiest & quickest way of spleeting a hiue.
1661. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 186. The way they usually Spleet the ordinary Strawn and Daubed Hives, every Countrey Coridon understands.
