[f. SPOUT v.]
1. † a. SPOUT-HOLE 1. Obs.–1
1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 75. The Indian … thrusteth in a logg into one of his spowters, and … knocketh it in so fast that by no means the whale can get it out.
b. A spouting whale.
1830. N. S. Wheaton, Jrnl., 519. In a calm to-day, we had a number of whales, and the whole tribe of spouters about the vessel.
1845. Encycl. Metrop., VII. 344/1. The Spouters are mostly characterized by width, flatness, shallowness, and equal extent of the jaws.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 645. Spouter, a whaling term for a South Sea whale.
c. A whaling-vessel. Also Comb.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, v. The ‘spouter,’ as the sailors call a whaleman, had sent up his main top-gallant mast and set the sail. Ibid., xxv. When we got on board, we found everything to correspond—spouter fashion.
1901. F. T. Bullen, Sack of Shakings, 208. I’ve been fishing now a good many years in Yankee spouters.
2. † a. A reciter or amateur actor. Obs.
c. 1760. (title) The Spouter’s Companion; or Theatrical Remembrancer, containing … Prologues and Epilogues [etc.].
1779. Mirror, No. 54, ¶ 14. People may be spouters without culture; but laborious education alone can make perfect actors.
1788. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 2), Spouters Club, a meeting of apprentices and mechanics to rehearse different characters in plays.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, X. x. (Rtldg.), 372. The major-domo, a great spouter, undertook to train me for the stage.
b. A fluent or voluble declaimer or speaker.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., clii. (1819), III. 170. The judicious observer … despises him … as the mere rival of the noisy spouters at the Forum.
1809. T. Pickering, in M. Cutler’s Life, etc. (1888), II. 317. The other spouters, implicitly confiding in their leaders, are but parrots repeating the notes proceeding from the palace.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xl. Foker … voted Erith a prig and a dullard,… the dreariest of philanthropic spouters.
1884. Spurgeon, in Sword & Trowel, June, 262. There’s no stopping these foaming spouters—they must just run themselves dry.
3. a. One who, or that which, spouts out something.
1796. Lamb, in Final Mem. (1848), I. i. 201. These mighty spouters out of panegyric waters have … scattered their spray even upon me.
b. A spouting oil-well.
1877. J. B. Killebrew, in Memphis Daily Appeal, 5 Sept., 4/7. There will probably be proportionably more wells known as ‘spouters’ in the Tennessee than in the Pennsylvania oil region, and fewer durable wells. In the ‘spouters’ the oil is forced up above the surface by gas-pressure.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 13 Oct., 6/1. How long Tagieff’s ‘spouter’ will last, and what its ultimate yield will be, will depend upon circumstances.
1901. Daily Chron., 31 May, 7/1. There have been some honest companies…, and these have worked to pay dividends by securing a spouter.
4. pl. Coals loaded from a spout.
1821. Acc. Peculations in Coal Trade, 3. Coal merchants … are always anxious to purchase spouters, as the coals are of a larger quality.
