Also 4–7 spraye, 4–6 sprai, 7 sprey (8 spry). [Of obscure origin. Connection with SPRAG sb.1 is uncertain.]
1. collect. Small or slender twigs of trees or shrubs, either as still growing or as cut off and used for fuel, etc.; fine brushwood.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 11522. Gret fur he made þer aniȝt of wode & of sprai.
a. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P., vi. 27. Bytuene Mershe ant Averil when spray biginneth to springe.
1615. W. Lawson, Country Housew. Gard. (1626), 31. If these two kindes thriue, they reforme but a spray, and an vnder-growth.
1652. J. Wadsworth, trans. Sandoval’s Civ. Wars Spain, 351. His souldiers … fetched a great quantitie of sprey, or bavins,… and set fire to them.
1707. Clergyman’s Vade-M. (1709), 214. With old Stocks, or Trees of above 20 Years old, but some Spry or small Underwood.
1778. [W. H. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 7 April 1775. As much prime wood as would, with a little spray, have made three bakers bavins.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 631. Pea sticks, which are branches of trees or shrubs well furnished with spray.
1852. Morfit, Tanning & Currying (1853), 96. Majestic trees … with spreading tortuous branches and spray.
1887. T. Hardy, Woodlanders, I. vii. 134. Hundreds of faggots, and divers lots of timber, had been set down to him, when all he had required had been a few bundles of spray for his man Robert Creedle’s use in baking and lighting fires.
b. With the (or that).
The sense in the first quot. is somewhat doubtful.
a. 1300. Floriz & Bl., 275. Ho so wonede a moneþ in þat spray, Nolde him neure longen away.
c. 1425. Thomas of Erceld., 86. He knelyde downe appone his knee, Vndir-nethe þat grenwode spraye.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, XII. Prol. 90. The spray bysprent with spryngand sproutis dispers.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 62 b. All the spraye that springeth aboue the flowre, is commonly cut off.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 22. Being gathered Green … and the Spray stripped off in August.
1791. W. Gilpin, Forest Scenery, I. 106. The mode of growth in the spray, corresponds exactly with that of the larger branches, of which indeed the spray is the origin.
1823. Southey, in Q. Rev., XXX. 3. The tree sheds its leaves not singly, but with the spray from which they spring.
1866. Treas. Bot., 141/1. The branches are used as fuel…; the spray for thatching.
fig. a. 1677. Harrington, Grounds & Reas. Mon., Wks. (1700), 32. Certainly these People were strangely blind as to God’s Judgment perpetually pour’d out upon a Family; or else wonderfully addicted to their own Interest, to admit the spray of such a stock.
† c. In the poetic phrase on or upon (the) spray.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVI. 64. This wes in the moneth of May, Quhen byrdis syngis on the spray.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sir Thopas, 59. The wodedowue vp on the spray She sang ful loude & clere.
1508. Dunbar, Gold. Targe, 51. A saill, als quhite as blossum vpon spray.
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 1412. How her ble was bryght as blossom on the spray.
2. A slender shoot or twig.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 157. Þere herdes fond hym among mory flagges and sprayes, and sente hym to Silla. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., XVII. viii. (Tollem. MS.). The beste [Amomum] is þat, þat is … sprad up on reed sprayes.
1503. Hawes, Examp. Virt., xii. 236. Where byrdes sate on many a spray.
1567. Fenton, Trag. Disc., v. (1898), I. 201. The pleasant apple, mustering … upon the heyght of the highest spraise.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. lxxxviii. 771. The branches be harde, and parted into other spraies.
1607. Walkington, Opt. Glass, 115. Like spraies and branches from the stemme of a tree.
1630. Drayton, Muses Eliz., Nymphal iv. 111. Amongst the lively Birds melodious Layes, As they recording sit vpon the Sprayes.
1704. Pope, Pastorals, Winter, 56. No more the birds shall … hearken from the sprays.
1785. G. Forster, trans. Sparrman’s Voy. Cape G. Hope (1786), I. 196. The frame of this arched roof … is composed of slender rods or sprays of trees.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Brooke Farm, xii. 135. A few ears dangling from the sprays for gleaners.
1854. Syd. Dobell, Balder, i. Poet. Wks. 1875, II. 12. Little window in the wall Eye-lashed with balmy sprays of honeysuckle.
fig. c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), V. ix. 100. A blessid floure out of this spray shall sprynge.
1563. Mirr. Mag., Hastings, ix. None aryse To former type, but they catch vertues spraye, Which mounteth them that clyme by lawfull waye.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. vi. 50. Who … set his murth’ring knife vnto the Roote, From whence that tender spray did sweetly spring, I meane our Princely Father. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., III. v. 5. Shall a few Sprayes of vs … Spirt vp so suddenly into the Clouds, And ouer looke their Grafters?
1781. Cowper, Charity, 629. Thus have I sought to grace a serious lay With many a wild, indeed, but flow’ry spray.
1873. Earle, Philol. Eng. Tongue (ed. 2), § 593. The sprays of language are those phrasal forms which are produced by the combination of symbolic words.
b. pl. Hazel, birch, or other twigs used in thatching.
1520. Churchw. Acc. St. Giles, Reading (ed. Nash), 11. For Sprayes & thatchyng of the ijo tents at the gravell pytt, ijs xjd.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 64. In some places Wood is so scarce, that they cannot get spraies to fasten on Thatch.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 162. Great Plantations of Hazel, that … are also of vast Service to the Thatcher by its Stretchers, Sprays, and Withs.
1854–. in midland dialect use.
c. A graceful shoot or twig of some flowering or fine-foliaged plant or tree, used for decoration or ornament; an artificial imitation of this.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 4848, Manufactured sprays, birds, leaves, seeds, and other artificial florists’ materials.
1873. ‘Ouida,’ Pascarèl, I. 64. He would never meet me without some spray of roses, or some boughs of lemon.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, v. Her first ball-dress, a delicious combination of white silk tulle and lace, with sprays of wild roses.
3. A metal casting resembling a set of twigs.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 270. When the whole has become sufficiently cooled, the boxes are opened, the spray, as the cluster of castings is called, taken out.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 332. The whole mass when poured has been compared to a great fern leaf with its leaflets, and is usually called a spray.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 263/1. The pattern-maker connects a number of them in a spray, i.e., a central stem, with branches springing out on either side.
4. attrib., as spray-bavin, -drain, -faggot, etc.
1778. [W. H. Marshall], Minutes Agric., 31 Dec. 1774. *Spray bavins … 10s. a hundred.
1850. Ogilvie, *Spray drain,… a drain formed by burying the spray of trees in the earth, which serves to keep open a channel.
1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. *Spray Fagots, fagots de menu bois.
1764. Museum Rust., II. 382. The small twigs, cut from the ends of spray faggots.
1793. Young, View Agric. Sussex, 33. The spray-faggot of all his extensive woods being cut down as fuel for his kilns.
1898. W. T. Greene, Cage-Birds, 59. White and *spray millet is the correct food for them [the chestnut-eared finches].
1844. Alb. Smith, Adv. Mr. Ledbury (1856), I. xix. 147. He carried a long staff,… pulled from some *spray-pile.
a. 1728. Woodward, Fossils, II. 110. A Piece of *Spray Wood.
c. 1730. Haynes, Voc., in N. & Q. (1883), VIII. 45/1. Spray wood, brush wood.
1802. Trans. Soc. Arts, XX. 170. Cut all the spray wood, and make the tree a perfect skeleton, leaving all the healthy limbs.
