[var. of SPIRT v.1]
1. intr. = SPIRT v.1 1. Freq. with out and up.
1570. Foxe, A. & M., 2287/1. He was … so manacled that ye bloud spurt out of his fingers endes.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 76. Round huskes, the which do open of themselves, and the seede being ripe, it spurteth and skippeth away.
1611. Cotgr., Surgeonner, to shoot out, spring, spurt vp.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., XIV. 502. Hardly any [blood] would spurt out of the opened Vein.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. II. 89. I perceived two White Specks in the middle of the Boil; and squeezing it, two small white Worms spurted out.
1722–7. Boyer, Dict. Royal, I. s.v. Rejaillir, He made the Dirt spurt up, or fly into his Face.
1800. Coleridge, Piccolomini, I. iv. My blood shall spurt out for this Wallenstein.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Brooke Farm, vii. 89. The milk went on spurting and fizzing into the pail.
1887. Bowen, Æneid, V. 469. A crimsoning flood Spurts from his lips in a torrent.
fig. 1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. I. i. Some sharpness of temper, spurting at times from a stagnating character. Ibid. (1858), Fredk. Gt., IX. v. II. 453. Rumours are rife and eager, occasionally spurting-out into the Newspapers.
b. To sputter. rare–1.
1854. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, iv. 119. Christmas hemlock spurting in the fire.
2. trans. = SPIRT v.1 2. Also const. out, up.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 441. The remedie to keepe Wespes from them, is to spurt or squirt oile out of a mans mouth vpon them.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., li. 201. The Chaubainhaa then took water in his mouth and spurted it on his wife.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., II. 82. At every two fathoms distance there are Pipes which spurt up Water very high.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Headach, In the next Place spurt Wine … into his Nostrils.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), II. 166. They often fill their trunks with water … to divert themselves by spurting it out like a fountain.
1886. Sheldon, trans. Flaubert’s Salammbô, i. 7. A Lusitanian … stalked about the tables, the while spurting fire from his nostrils.
fig. 1699. Bentley, Phal., 122. His boyish Witticisms and doggeril Rhimes, which he has spurted here.
1827. Carlyle, Misc. (1840), I. 34. His stream of meaning … will not flow quietly along its channel; but is ever and anon spurting itself up into epigrams and antithetic jets.
Hence Spurted ppl. a.; Spurter.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., II. 102. That Gum is nothing but a spurted Sap.
1890. Blackw. Mag., CXLVII. 420/2. It is only sentimentalists and spurters of rose-water that object to it [deerstalking].
