Obs. Also 5–6 suspyral, -all(e, -irall(e, suspirel, 6 sesperal, susprall, cesperalle. [a. OF. s(o)uspirail (mod.F. soupirail) = Pr. sospiralh, ad. med.L. suspīrāculum, f. suspīrāre to SUSPIRE + -culum, denoting instrument.]
1. A breathing-passage.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxxi. 80. This neck shalle be the suspyralle wherby the brethe shalle be drawen bothe to comforte of the hede and eke of al the body.
2. A vent, esp. for a conduit.
c. 1430. in Lond. & Middlesex Archæol. Trans. (1870), III. 321. This suspirall seruith for thes ij pipes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 485. Suspyral, of a cundyte, spiraculum.
1562. in Strype, Stow’s Surv. (1755), II. V. xxi. 411. No man shall … destroy any pipes Sesperals or Wind-vents pertaining to the Conduits.
3. A pipe or passage for water leading to a conduit.
1420. Cov. Leet Bk., 21. Ordinatum fuit quod les Suspirales … deleantur et obstupantur. Ibid. (1426), 105. That no welles nor suspiralles, other then ben ordeyned, shuld be had to let the comen Cours of the seid Cundyte.
1543–4. Act 35 Hen. VIII., c. 10. To vewe … the said Heddes pipes suspiralles and vaultes, and them to amend repaire translate.
[1656. Blount, Glossogr., Suspiral,… In the Statute of 35 Hen. 8. Cap. 10. it seems to be taken for a Spring of water, passing under the ground, towards a Conduit or Cestern.]
4. A settling tank; a cesspool.
c. 1512. in Archaeologia (1902), LVIII. 301. In þe same diche boþe þe suspirel & þe waste pipe awoyde ther water in a gotir of breke. Ibid., 302. In the botome of this well undir a stone is a susprall wt a tampioun to clense the home pype.
1583. in N. Bacon, Ann. Ipswiche (1884), 337. Cesperalle to be made for stopping of filthe by the brooke.
