S. African. [Du. spruit SPROUT sb.1] A small stream or watercourse, usually almost or altogether dry except in the wet season.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, 207. I scraped my finger-nails off in making large holes in the dry spruits, but not one drop came.
1877. Lady Barker, Yr.’s Housekeeping S. Africa, viii. 150. A real river, not a big hill, or a capricious spruit, sometimes a ditch, and sometimes a lake.
1889. F. Oates, Matabele-Land, 66. Where we outspanned the boys made a fire in the hollow bed of a spruit.
