Obs. rare. Also 6 sporne. [Of obscure origin.] A special kind of specter or phantom.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., VII. xv. (1886), 155. They have so fraied us with … Robin goodfellow, the spoorne, the mare, the man in the oke,… and such other bugs, that we are afraid of our own shadowes.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xxxiv. (1592), 546. Thereupon also did some of the Gentiles surmise, that they had crucified a Ghost or Sporne in steade of him.
[a. 1627. Middleton, etc., Witch, I. ii. Dwarfs, Imps, the Spoorn, the Mare, the Man i’ th’ Oak.]
