sb. [Orig. E. Anglian dial.: perh. for splind (cf. older Da. splind, NFris. splinj) and related to SPLINDER sb.] A long, narrow, and relatively thin piece or strip of wood, metal, etc.; a slat.
1756. S. White, Collat. Bee-Boxes (1759), 26. c. c. are two Splines of Deal to keep the Boards even and strengthen them.
1806. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., IV. 772. The heavel, which is a row of loops fastened to a spline.
1866. Spectator, 13 Jan., 30/1. She slept on the splines of the bed, having no bedding.
1886. Shoolbred’s Catal. Furniture, etc. 177. The ends [of a garden chair] are wrought iron, the splines wood.
1905. Rider Haggard, Gardener’s Year, 218. He sent me a score [of orchids], tied on to a spline with string.
fig. 1805. W. Taylor, in Robberds, Mem. (1843), II. 106. My chief complacency in the poem results from the art … with which the new splines are fitted in.
attrib. 1883. Daily News, 5 July, 3/1. Spars were fixed across, and the spline frames of the seats laid down lengthways as flooring.
b. spec. (See quot.)
1891. Cent. Dict., Spline, a flexible strip of wood or hard rubber used by draftsmen in laying out broad sweeping curves, especially in railroad work.
c. dial. (See quot.)
1892. P. H. Emerson, Son of Fens, 204. A spline is a ten and a half foot measure.
2. techn. A rectangular key fitting into grooves in a shaft and wheel or other attachment so as to allow longitudinal movement of the latter.
1864. in Webster.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 339/1. The cutter-block … traverses as a slide on a spline down a huge boring-bar.
Hence Spline v. trans., to fit with a spline (Cent. Dict., 1891); Splining vbl. sb., used attrib. in splining machine, one for cutting key-seats and grooves (Webster, 1864).
