Also 6 splitte, 7 splitt. [f. SPLIT v. and ppl. a. Cf. LG. splitt, G. spliss, NFris. spledd.]
1. A narrow break or opening made by splitting; a cleft, crack, rent or chink; a fissure.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., lf. xiv b/2. That vvhich must entre into the splitte, or els betvveene the depressede bones. Ibid., lf. xvii. b/2. In the vvhich is a splitte, throughe the vvhich the blade passeth.
1648. Hexham, II. Een Splete, a Split, or a Cleft.
1849. Cupples, Green Hand, iv. (1856), 50. The long ragged split to westward was opened up, and a clear glaring glance of the sky … shot through it.
1855. Ruffini, Dr. Antonio, ii. I see a split in that door behind your bed.
1888. Rutley, Rock-Forming Min., 171. The cleavage planes … give rise to striations or fine splits.
b. techn. An angular groove cut on glass vessels.
1850. Holtzapffel, Turning, III. 1299. For angular grooves, or splits, up the side of a decanter, or similar object, a mill with an angular edge is employed.
1891. Sale Catal. Glass Wks. Stourbridge, Twenty clarets, cut splits.
c. A division formed by splitting.
1875. Buckland, Log-Bk., 227. A horn on one side branching into splits, the other being perfect in form.
2. A piece of wood separated or formed by splitting. Now U.S.
1617. Minsheu, Ductor, 462/2. Splits, or splents of wood.
1633. Ford, ’Tis Pity, V. iii. Some under-shrubs shall in my weighty fall Be crush’d to splits; with me they all shall perish!
c. 1664. Min. Bk. Coopers Glasgow, in Jamieson, Suppl. (1887), 321. That … nane of thame … sal buy any runges, stinges, splittis, or stappis, from the saidis four persounes.
1725. Family Dict., s.v. Bee-Hive, And these are either Wicker-Hives, made with Splits of Wood,… or Straw-Hives.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 151. To each crank is fixed a straight half split of balk timber.
1837. Hebert, Engin. & Mech. Encycl., I. 154. The osiers are divided into four parts, lengthways, which are called splits.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 151. Making our bed of some ‘splits’ which we poked from the roof.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2281/2. Split.… A ribbon of wood rived from a rough piece of green timber.
Comb. 1872. De Vere, Americanisms, 58. Hickory and oak both yield the necessary wood, and chairs of this kind are known, especially in the South, as split-bottom chairs.
1887. T. N. Page, Ole Virginia (1891), 204. He … was plumped down in his great split-bottomed chair.
b. Weaving. A dent (orig. a piece of split reed or cane) in the reed of a loom. Sc.
1748. Rec. Elgin (1903), I. 188. The web of 1200 wrought two’s in a reed containing 1200 splits upon 401/2in.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1056. In Scotland, the splits of cane which pass between the … ribs of the reed, are expressed by hundreds, porters, and splits. The porter is 20 splits.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 1903/2. Two warp-threads count for 1 split.
c. techn. (See quot. 1858.)
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Splits, a term, in the leather trade, for divided skins which have been separated into two sections by the cutting machine; there being tanned splits and salted splits.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2281/2. Splits of the smaller skins, such as goat and sheep, are made into wash or glove leather.
1882. Encycl. Brit., XIV. 386. In the case of a single split the portions form a grain and flesh side.
3. A rupture, breach, division or dissension in a party or sect, or between friends.
1729. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), III. 439. The brethren … might meet together,… and consider what was to be done … to guard against a split among ourselves.
1826. Scott, Diary, 21 Jan. I fear the split betwixt Constable and Cadell will render impossible what might otherwise be hopeful enough.
1852. Disraeli, Ld. G. Bentinck, xxv. 520. He felt … that there would be a ‘split’ in the ranks.
1886. Dk. Devonshire, in B. Holland, Life (1911), II. xxi. 127. The responsibility of provoking an open split in the party … was too great.
b. A body or party formed by a rupture or schism.
1883. Standard, 22 March, 2/1. The Patriotic Brotherhood … consisted of part of the ‘splits’ of the Old Ribbon Society combined.
1891. Newcastle Daily Jrnl., 9 March, 8/2. ‘Do you belong to the split?’ asked one Scotchman of another.
4. a. (At) full split, or like split, at full speed; as fast as possible. U.S.
1836. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. I. xxx. Most on ’em, arter the second shot, cut and run full split.
1845. [Seba Smith], Lett. J. Downing, 64 (Bartlett). There was no end to the one hoss teams, haulin little carts and goin like split all over the city.
1867. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 665. [To] drive by so close, at full split, as to just turn the fly round.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, 144–5. Out of the house in one minute, and in saddle and off full-split the next.
b. The splits, in acrobatics or stage-dancing: (see quot. 1883). Also in sing.
1861. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 90. I had to do the splits and strides. Ibid., 99/2. I had learnt to do a split, holding a half-hundred in my teeth.
1883. Chambers’s Jrnl., 130. Doing the splits is … separating the legs until they extend at right angles to the body, which is thus lowered to the ground.
1895. Pall Mall Gaz., 1 Feb., 4/2. The average music-hall audience … demanding extravagant high-kicking, splits, and cart-wheels.
c. The act or process of splitting; an instance of this.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 914. Blows or crushes resulting in the split of a vessel … have produced aortic aneurism.
1902. N. & Q., 9th Ser. IX. 172/1. One of the most striking ‘splits’ [of an infinitive].
5. Mining. a. (See quot. 1881.)
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 316. The ore in the western branches of the two splits is decidedly softer than that in the eastern ones. Ibid. (1881), Mining Gloss., s.v., When a parting in a coal-seam becomes so thick that the two portions of the seam must be worked separately, each is called a split.
b. A division of a ventilating air-current.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 231. Each separate district should have its own split of fresh air.
1892. Labour Comm., Gloss. No. 3, Splits, the radiating passages through which the main current of air ventilating a mine is subdivided or split up for circulation.
c. (See quot.)
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 63. Split, a room or end driven through a pillar.
6. slang. An informer; a detective.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., To split upon a person, or turn split, is synonymous with nosing, snitching, or turning nose.
1859. Slang Dict., 14.
1891. M. Williams, Later Leaves, xxvii. 326. A man came into one of the other compartments, and … said: ‘You are talking to a split.’
7. colloq. a. A drink composed of two liquors.
1882. Society, 11 Nov., 22/2. The ‘nips,’ the ‘stims,’ the ‘sherries and Angosturas,’ the ‘splits’ of young Contango.
1892. Nation, 28 July, 66/1. One of the principal of the illicit beverages is a deadly compound called ‘split,’ composed of alcohol and water.
b. A split soda; a bottle of mineral water half the usual size.
1884. G. Moore, Mummer’s Wife (1887), 168. When she had finished Montgomery tried to persuade her to try a ‘split’ with him.
1896. Dundee Courier, 5 Oct., 4/1, Advt. Apollinaris [table water]. Now supplied in splits.
c. A split roll or bun.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 29 Dec., 2/1. We … were dried and warmed and given hot tea, splits and butter, and cakes.
d. A split vote.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 28 Aug., 7/1. If Mr. Burgess got Conservative splits, as well as split votes between himself and Mr. Broadhurst.
