[f. the vb. Cf. Sw. spliss, splits.]
1. A joining or union of two portions of rope, cable, cord, etc., effected by untwisting and interweaving the strands at the point of junction. Chiefly Naut.
The various kinds of splices are freq. denoted by some distinguishing term, as cut, drawing, eye or ring, long, round, short (etc.) splice.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 26. Splicing is so to let one ropes end into another they shall be as firme as if they were but one rope, and this is called a round Splice; but the cut Splice is to let one into another with as much distance as you will.
c. 1635. Capt. N. Boteler, Dial. Sea Service (1685), 192. When an Eye is to be made at the end of any Rope, the ends of the Strands or several Twists, are with a Fidd drawn into the ends of the other Ropes Strands, and this is called a Splice.
1711. Milit. & Sea Dict., Make a Splice, and seaze the Ends down with some Sinnet.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine, s.v., The long splice … is much neater and smoother than the short-splice.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 291. Explanations of various kinds of splices … are given in Dana’[s] Seaman’s Manual.
1866. Even. Standard, 13 July, 3. The Atlantic Cable…. The Great Eastern … will leave Berehaven this afternoon, arriving at the buoys … to-morrow morning, when the splice will be made.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, ix. (1880), 316. Where you have to tie and untie your own splices.
transf. 1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xv. The Vice-Admiral has got a hint from Sir —, to kick that wild splice, young Cringle, about a bit.
b. techn. A joining of two pieces of wood, etc., formed by overlapping and securing the ends; a scarf-joint.
1875. in Knight, Dict. Mech., 2280/1.
2. slang. Union by marriage; a marriage; a wedding.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., II. i. (1849), 43. She ben’t five-and-twenty—she’ll make a heavenly splice!
1862. Cornh. Mag., V. Jan., 54. Till the splice is made she’s a right to please herself.
1876. Holland, Seven Oaks, xxi. 303. I’m a little interested in her myself and I’m going to pay for the splice.
3. attrib. and Comb., as splice manner, -work, etc.; splice-bar, = splice-piece; splice-grafting, a method of grafting in which the scion and stock are cut obliquely and bound firmly together; whip- or tongue-grafting; hence splice-graft vb.; splice-joint, -piece (see quots.).
1815. Trans. Horticultural Soc., I. 239. The amputated parts [of the pear-stocks] were then accurately fitted and bound, as in splice, or whip-grafting, to scions of Pear Trees.
1830. W. Taylor, Hist. Surv. Germ. Poetry, II. 397. [Dryden’s style is] never approached by a German splice-work of anapæsts and iambics.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 288. Splice-grafting, tongue-grafting, or whip-grafting, is the mode most commonly adopted in all gardens where the stocks are not much larger in diameter than the scion. Ibid., 289. In splice-grafting the shoots of peaches, nectarines, and apricots.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2280/1. Splice-piece.… A fish-plate or break-joint piece at the junction of two rails. Ibid. (1884), Suppl. 843/2. Splice joint, the connecting joints between rails on railways.
1894. Times, 16 Aug., 6/4. Railway fish plates or splice bars.
