Sc. and north. dial. Also sprett. [Obscurely related to SPRAT sb.3 See also SPREAT and SPRIT sb.3] A kind of rush, esp. the joint-leaved rush; coarse, reedy or rush-like grass; a stalk or stem of this.
1397–8. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 215. Pro sprettis et stramine emp. pro tectura.
1777. J. Lightfoot, Flora Scotica, II. 1131. Juncus articulatus,… Sprett.
1794. Statist. Acc. Scot., XIII. 583. On part of it grows a coarse kind of grass called sprett, which is cut by the farmers for hay.
1808. in Jamieson.
1870. United Presbyt. Mag., 199. All the houses received a fresh covering of rushes or sprett every year.
1878. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, VIII. 452. The earliest plants that appear, which are known by the vernacular names of moss, ling, spret, &c.
1894. in Heslop, Northumbld. Wds.
Hence Spretty a., of the nature of spret; full of, producing or growing, spret.
1808. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., V. 298. Spretty coarse grass is not easily killed by frost.
1878. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, VIII. 453. Spretty-grasses, a general term for the succulent products of meadow or bog-land, but chiefly for the different rushes (Juncus) which are cut for bog-hay.
1882. Jas. Walker, Jaunt to Auld Reekie, 240. Our bard Through spretty fields his shining plough-shares drave.
