Also 4–5 sprigge, 5–6 spryg(ge, 6 sprygg, 9 sprigg. [Of obscure origin.]
1. A small slender nail, either wedge-shaped and headless, or square-bodied with a slight head on one side. † Also collect.
In both senses, but now especially in the second, identical with a brad.
1359. [see transom-nail TRANSOM 7].
1426–7. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 65. Also for ve sprygge þe same day, iiij d.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 122. To Piers Draper for Ml sprigge price vj d.
1539–40. in Archaeol. Cant. (1893), XX. 243. 2 ‘some’ of ‘sprygg’ 10 s.
1552. Churchw. Acc. St. Michaels, Cornhill (MS.), For nayles and sprygs to the setting up of the new pewe.
1653. Holcroft, Procopius, Goth. Wars, III. 97. They fit to one another the blunt ends of foure Iron sprigs, of equall length.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 51. Brad is a Nail without a head to floor Rooms withall; it is with us termed a Sprig, and is about the size of a ten penny Nail.
1713. J. Warder, True Amazons, xiii. 117. Some two-penny Dove Nails, or small Hinges, with some Nails and three-penny Sprigs.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, I. 109. After having had iron sprigs driven home underneath every one of his nails on hands and feet.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 117. Battens … fastened down to stout joists with Scotch flooring sprigs driven through the feather-edge.
1875. Carpentry & Join., 64. The bottom of the drawer is to be … secured by a small brad or sprig to the back.
b. Naut. (See quot.)
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, 10. Sprig, a small eye-bolt, ragged at the point.
c. A wedge-shaped piece of tin used to hold glass in a sash until the putty dries.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 422. Large squares should be further secured by small sprigs being driven into the rebates of the sash.
1875. Carpentry & Join., 106. Let a sprig be put in under each as it is put in place—before it is puttied.
2. A small projecting part or point.
1679. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., vii. ¶ 3. Carpenters have their Shank made with an hollow Socket at its top, to receive a strong wooden Sprig made to fit into that Socket. Ibid. (1683), Printing, xi. ¶ 21. An Iron Stud with a square Sprig under it, to be drove and fastned into a Wooden Horse.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xxi. (Roxb.), 263/2. The Sprig or Pin of the handle is commonly set into the tip of an Harts Horn for its halve.
1847. Halliw., s.v., A triangular piece of iron is screwed to their shoe-heels, having three points half an inch long projecting downwards. These are called sprigs.
3. attrib. and Comb., as sprig-box, maker, -nail; sprig-awl, -bit, a bradawl.
1477–9. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 84. For iij quarters Sprygge nayle, iij d ob. Ibid. (c. 1480), 104. For ml di. Sprygge nayle.
1609–10. in Swayne, Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896), 306. Sprigge nayles for the stepps, 12 d.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 298/1. A Nail, (of some termed a Sprig Nail, because without a Head).
1797. J. Robinson’s Directory Sheffield, 63. Dickinson, Enoch, sprig maker.
1798. W. Hutton, Life, 17. A fork, with one limb, was made to act in the double capacity of sprig-awl and gimlet.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 116. The smallest sort of boring tool is a kind of bodkin, called the brad-awl, or sprig-bit.
1896. ‘J. Ackworth,’ Clog Shop Chron., 34. Billy flushed, and as he bent over his work a great tear splashed down into the sprig-box before him.
