Part 85
Spon`ta*ne"i*ty (?), n.; pl. Spontaneities (#). [Cf. F. spontanéité.] 1. The quality or state of being spontaneous, or acting from native feeling, proneness, or temperament, without constraint or external force.
Romney Leigh, who lives by diagrams, And crosses not the spontaneities Of all his individual, personal life With formal universals.
Mrs. Browning.
2. (Biol.) (a) The tendency to undergo change, characteristic of both animal and vegetable organisms, and not restrained or cheked by the environment. (b) The tendency to activity of muscular tissue, including the voluntary muscles, when in a state of healthful vigor and refreshment.
Spon*ta"ne*ous (?), a. [L. spontaneus, fr. sponte of free will, voluntarily.] 1. Proceding from natural feeling, temperament, or disposition, or from a native internal proneness, readiness, or tendency, without constraint; as, a spontaneous gift or proportion.
2. Proceeding from, or acting by, internal impulse, energy, or natural law, without external force; as, spontaneous motion; spontaneous growth.
3. Produced without being planted, or without human labor; as, a spontaneous growth of wood.
Spontaneous combustion, combustion produced in a substance by the evolution of heat through the chemical action of its own elements; as, the spontaneous combustion of waste matter saturated with oil. -- Spontaneous generation. (Biol.) See under Generation.
Syn. -- Voluntary; uncompelled; willing. -- Spontaneous, Voluntary. What is voluntary is the result of a volition, or act of choice; it therefore implies some degree of consideration, and may be the result of mere reason without excited feeling. What is spontaneous springs wholly from feeling, or a sudden impulse which admits of no reflection; as, a spontaneous burst of applause. Hence, the term is also applied to things inanimate when they are produced without the determinate purpose or care of man. "Abstinence which is but voluntary fasting, and . . . exercise which is but voluntary labor." J. Seed.
Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play, The soul adopts, and owns their firstborn away.
Goldsmith.
-- Spon*ta"ne*ous*ly, adv. -- Spon*ta"ne*ous*ness, n.
Spon*toon" (?), n. [F. sponton, esponton, it. spontone, spuntone.] (Mil.) A kind of half-pike, or halberd, formerly borne by inferior officers of the British infantry, and used in giving signals to the soldiers.
Spook (?), n. [D. spook; akin to G. spuk, Sw. spöke, Dan. spögelse a specter, spöge to play, sport, joke, spög a play, joke.] 1. A spirit; a ghost; an apparition; a hobgoblin. [Written also spuke.] Ld. Lytton.
2. (Zoöl.) The chimæra.
Spool (?), n. [OE. spole, OD. spoele, D. spoel; akin to G. spule, OHG. spuola, Dan. & Sw. spole.] A piece of cane or red with a knot at each end, or a hollow cylinder of wood with a ridge at each end, used to wind thread or yarn upon.
Spool stand, an article holding spools of thread, turning on pins, -- used by women at their work.
Spool, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spooled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Spooling.] To wind on a spool or spools.
Spool"er (?), n. One who, or that which, spools.
Spoom (?), v. i. [Probably fr. spum foam. See Spume.] (Naut.) To be driven steadily and swiftly, as before a strong wind; to be driven before the wind without any sail, or with only a part of the sails spread; to scud under bare poles. [Written also spoon.]
When virtue spooms before a prosperous gale, My heaving wishes help to fill the sail.
Dryden.
Spoon (spn), v. i. (Naut.) See Spoom. [Obs.]
We might have spooned before the wind as well as they.
Pepys.
Spoon, n. [OE. spon, AS. spn, a chip; akin to D. spaan, G. span, Dan. spaan, Sw. spån, Icel. spánn, spónn, a chip, a spoon. √170. Cf. Span- new.] 1. An implement consisting of a small bowl (usually a shallow oval) with a handle, used especially in preparing or eating food.
"Therefore behoveth him a full long spoon That shall eat with a fiend," thus heard I say.
Chaucer.
He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.
Shak.
2. Anything which resembles a spoon in shape; esp. (Fishing), a spoon bait.
3. Fig.: A simpleton; a spooney. [Slang] Hood.
Spoon bait (Fishing), a lure used in trolling, consisting of a glistening metallic plate shaped like the bowl of a spoon with a fishhook attached. -- Spoon bit, a bit for boring, hollowed or furrowed along one side. -- Spoon net, a net for landing fish. -- Spoon oar. see under Oar.
Spoon, v. t. To take up in, or as in, a spoon.
Spoon, v. i. To act with demonstrative or foolish fondness, as one in love. [Colloq.]
Spoon"bill` (?), n. (Zoöl.) (a) Any one of several species of wading birds of the genera Ajaja and Platalea, and allied genera, in which the long bill is broadly expanded and flattened at the tip.
The roseate spoonbill of America (Ajaja ajaja), and the European spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) are the best known. The royal spoonbill (P. regia) of Australia is white, with the skin in front of the eyes naked and black. The male in the breeding season has a fine crest.
(b) The shoveler. See Shoveler, 2. (c) The ruddy duck. See under Ruddy. (d) The paddlefish.
Spoon"-billed` (?), a. (Zoöl.) Having the bill expanded and spatulate at the end.
Spoon"drift (?), n. [Spoom + drift.] Spray blown from the tops waves during a gale at sea; also, snow driven in the wind at sea; -- written also spindrift.
Spoon"ey (?), a. Weak-minded; demonstratively fond; as, spooney lovers. [Spelt also spoony.] [Colloq.]
Spoon"ey, n.; pl. Spooneye (&?;). A weak-minded or silly person; one who is foolishly fond. [Colloq.]
There is no doubt, whatever, that I was a lackadaisical young spooney.
Dickens.
Spoon"ful (?), n.; pl. Spoonfuls (&?;). 1. The quantity which a spoon contains, or is able to contain; as, a teaspoonful; a tablespoonful.
2. Hence, a small quantity. Arbuthnot.
Spoon"i*ly (?), adv. In a spoony manner.
Spoon"-meat` (?), n. Food that is, or must be, taken with a spoon; liquid food. "Diet most upon spoon-meats." Harvey.
Spoon"wood` (?), n. (Bot.) The mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia).
Spoon"worm` (?), n. (Zoöl.) A gephyrean worm of the genus Thalassema, having a spoonlike probiscis.
Spoon"wort` (?), n. (Bot.) Scurvy grass.
Spoon"y (?), a. & n. Same as Spooney.
Spoor (?), n. [D. spoor; akin to AS. spor, G. spur, and from the root of E. spur. √171. See Spur.] The track or trail of any wild animal; as, the spoor of an elephant; -- used originally by travelers in South Africa.
Spoor, v. i. To follow a spoor or trail. [R.]
||Spor"a*des (?), n. pl. [L., fr. Gr. spora`des. Cf. Sporadic.] ||(Astron.) Stars not included in any constellation; -- called also ||informed, or unformed, stars.
Spo*ra"di*al (?), a. Sporadic. [R.]
Spo*rad"ic (?), a. [Gr. &?; scattered, fr. &?;, &?;, scattered, fr. &?; to sow seed, to scatter like seed: cf. F. sporadique. See Spore.] Occuring singly, or apart from other things of the same kind, or in scattered instances; separate; single; as, a sporadic fireball; a sporadic case of disease; a sporadic example of a flower.
Sporadic disease (Med.), a disease which occurs in single and scattered cases. See the Note under Endemic, a.
Spo*rad"ic*al (?), a. Sporadic.
Spo*rad"ic*al*ly, adv. In a sporadic manner.
Spo*ran"gi*o*phore (?), n. [Sporangium + Gr. &?; to bear.] (Bot.) The axis or receptacle in certain ferns (as Trichomanes), which bears the sporangia.
||Spo*ran"gi*um (?), n.; pl. Sporangia (#). [NL., fr. Gr. &?; a sowing, ||seed + &?; a receptacle.] (Bot.) A spore case in the cryptogamous ||plants, as in ferns, etc.
Spore (?), n. [Gr. &?; a sowing, seed, from &?; to sow. Cf. Sperm.] 1. (Bot.) (a) One of the minute grains in flowerless plants, which are analogous to seeds, as serving to reproduce the species.
Spores are produced differently in the different classes of cryptogamous plants, and as regards their nature are often so unlike that they have only their minuteness in common. The peculiar spores of diatoms (called auxospores) increase in size, and at length acquire a siliceous coating, thus becoming new diatoms of full size. Compare Macrospore, Microspore, Oöspore, Restingspore, Sphærospore, Swarmspore, Tetraspore, Zoöspore, and Zygospore.
(b) An embryo sac or embryonal vesicle in the ovules of flowering plants.
2. (Biol.) (a) A minute grain or germ; a small, round or ovoid body, formed in certain organisms, and by germination giving rise to a new organism; as, the reproductive spores of bacteria, etc. (b) One of the parts formed by fission in certain Protozoa. See Spore formation, belw.
Spore formation. (a) (Biol) A mode of reproduction resembling multitude fission, common among Protozoa, in which the organism breaks up into a number of pieces, or spores, each of which eventually develops into an organism like the parent form. Balfour. (b) The formation of reproductive cells or spores, as in the growth of bacilli.
Spo"rid (?), n. (Bot.) A sporidium. Lindley.
Spo`ri*dif"er*ous (?), a. [Sporidium + -ferous.] (Bot.) Bearing sporidia.
||Spo*rid"i*um (?), n.; pl. Sporidia (#). [NL. See Spore.] (Bot.) (a) A ||secondary spore, or a filament produced from a spore, in certain ||kinds of minute fungi. (b) A spore.
Spo*rif"er*ous (?), a. [Spore + -ferous.] (Biol.) Bearing or producing spores.
Spo`ri*fi*ca"tion (?), n. [Spore + L. -ficare (in comp.) to make. See -fy.] (Biol.) Spore formation. See Spore formation (b), under Spore.
Spo"ro*carp (?), n. [Spore + Gr. &?; fruit.] (Bot.) (a) A closed body or conceptacle containing one or more masses of spores or sporangia. (b) A sporangium.
Spo"ro*cyst (?), n. [Gr. &?; seed + &?; bladder.] 1. (Zoöl.) An asexual zooid, usually forming one of a series of larval forms in the agamic reproduction of various trematodes and other parasitic worms. The sporocyst generally develops from an egg, but in its turn produces other larvæ by internal budding, or by the subdivision of a part or all of its contents into a number of minute germs. See Redia.
2. (Zoöl.) Any protozoan when it becomes encysted produces germs by sporulation.
Spo`ro*gen"e*sis (?), n. [Spore + genesis.] (Biol.) reproduction by spores.
Spo*rog"o*ny (?), n. [Spore + root of Gr. &?; to be born.] (Zoöl.) The growth or development of an animal or a zooid from a nonsexual germ.
Spo"ro*phore (?), n. [Spore + Gr. &?; to bear.] (Bot.) (a) A placenta. (b) That alternately produced form of certain cryptogamous plants, as ferns, mosses, and the like, which is nonsexual, but produces spores in countless numbers. In ferns it is the leafy plant, in mosses the capsule. Cf. Oöphore.
Spo`ro*phor"ic (?), a. (Bot.) Having the nature of a sporophore.
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Spo"ro*sac (?), n. [Spore + sac.] (Zoöl.) (a) A hydrozoan reproductive zooid or gonophore which does not become medusoid in form or structure. See Illust. under Athecata. (b) An early or simple larval stage of trematode worms and some other invertebrates, which is capable or reproducing other germs by asexual generation; a nurse; a redia.
||Spo`ro*zo"a (?), n. pl. [NL., from Gr. spo`ros a spore + zo^,on an ||animal.] (Zoöl.) An extensive division of parasitic Protozoa, which ||increase by sporulation. It includes the Gregarinida.
Spo`ro*zo"id (?), n. [Spore + Gr. &?; an animal.] (Bot.) Same as Zoöspore.
Spor"ran (spr"ran), n. [Gael. sporan.] A large purse or pouch made of skin with the hair or fur on, worn in front of the kilt by Highlanders when in full dress.
Sport (sprt), n. [Abbreviated frm disport.] 1. That which diverts, and makes mirth; pastime; amusement.
It is as sport a fool do mischief.
prov. x. 23.
Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight.
Sir P. Sidney.
Think it but a minute spent in sport.
Shak.
2. Mock; mockery; contemptuous mirth; derision.
Then make sport at me; then let me be your jest.Shak.
3. That with which one plays, or which is driven about in play; a toy; a plaything; an object of mockery.
Flitting leaves, the sport of every wind.
Dryden.
Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned pasions.
John Clarke.
4. Play; idle jingle.
An author who should introduce such a sport of words upon our stage would meet with small applause.
Broome.
5. Diversion of the field, as fowling, hunting, fishing, racing, games, and the like, esp. when money is staked.
6. (Bot. & Zoöl.) A plant or an animal, or part of a plant or animal, which has some peculiarity not usually seen in the species; an abnormal variety or growth. See Sporting plant, under Sporting.
7. A sportsman; a gambler. [Slang]
In sport, in jest; for play or diversion. "So is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, and saith, Am not I in sport?" Prov. xxvi. 19.
Syn. -- Play; game; diversion; frolic; mirth; mock; mockery; jeer.
Sport, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sported; p. pr. & vb. n. Sporting.] 1. To play; to frolic; to wanton.
[Fish], sporting with quick glance, Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold.
Milton.
2. To practice the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.
3. To trifle. "He sports with his own life." Tillotson.
4. (Bot. & Zoöl.) To assume suddenly a new and different character from the rest of the plant or from the type of the species; -- said of a bud, shoot, plant, or animal. See Sport, n., 6. Darwin.
Syn. -- To play; frolic; game; wanton.
Sport, v. t. 1. To divert; to amuse; to make merry; -- used with the reciprocal pronoun.
Against whom do ye sport yourselves?
Isa. lvii. 4.
2. To represent by any knd of play.
Now sporting on thy lyre the loves of youth.
Dryden.
3. To exhibit, or bring out, in public; to use or wear; as, to sport a new equipage. [Colloq.] Grose.
4. To give utterance to in a sportive manner; to throw out in an easy and copious manner; -- with off; as, to sport off epigrams. Addison.
To sport one's oak. See under Oak, n.
Sport`a*bil"i*ty (?), n. Sportiveness. [Obs.]
Sport"al (?), a. Of or pertaining to sports; used in sports. [R.] "Sportal arms." Dryden.
Sport"er (?), n. One who sports; a sportsman.
As this gentleman and I have been old fellow sporters, I have a frienship for him.
Goldsmith.
Sport"ful (?), a. 1. Full of sport; merry; frolicsome; full of jesting; indulging in mirth or play; playful; wanton; as, a sportful companion.
Down he alights among the sportful herd.
Milton.
2. Done in jest, or for mere play; sportive.
They are no sportful productions of the soil.
Bentley.
-- Sport"ful*ly, adv. -- Sport"ful*ness, n.
Sport"ing, a. Of pertaining to, or engaging in, sport or sporrts; exhibiting the character or conduct of one who, or that which, sports.
Sporting book, a book containing a record of bets, gambling operations, and the like. C. Kingsley. -- Sporting house, a house frequented by sportsmen, gamblers, and the like. -- Sporting man, one who practices field sports; also, a horse racer, a pugilist, a gambler, or the like. -- Sporting plant (Bot.), a plant in which a single bud or offset suddenly assumes a new, and sometimes very different, character from that of the rest of the plant. Darwin.
Sport"ing*ly, adv. In sport; sportively.
The question you there put, you do it, I suppose, but sportingly.
Hammond.
Sport"ive (?), a. Tending to, engaged in, or provocate of, sport; gay; froliscome; playful; merry.
Is it I That drive thee from the sportive court?
Shak.
-- Sport"ive*ly, adv. -- Sport"ive*ness, n.
Sport"less, a. Without sport or mirth; joyless.
Sport"ling (?), n. A little person or creature engaged in sports or in play.
When again the lambkins play -- Pretty sportlings, full of May.
Philips.
Sports"man (?), n.;pl. Sportsmen (&?;). One who pursues the sports of the field; one who hunts, fishes, etc.
Sports"man*ship, n. The practice of sportsmen; skill in field sports.
||Spor"tu*la (?), n.; pl. Sportulæ (&?;). [L.] A gift; a present; a ||prize; hence, an alms; a largess.
To feed luxuriously, to frequent sports and theaters, to run for the sportula.
South.
Spor"tu*la*ry (?), a. Subsisting on alms or charitable contributions. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.
Spor"tule (?), n. [L. sportula a little basket, a gift, dim. of sporta a basket: cf. F. sortule.] A charitable gift or contribution; a gift; an alms; a dole; a largess; a sportula. [Obs.] Ayliffe.
Spor`u*la"tion (?), n. (Biol.) The act or process of forming spores; spore formation. See Illust. of Bacillus, b.
Spor"ule (?), n. [Dim. of spore.] (Biol.) A small spore; a spore.
Spor`u*lif"er*ous (?), a. [Sporule + -ferous.] (Biol.) Producing sporules.
Spot (?), n. [Cf. Scot. & D. spat, Dan. spette, Sw. spott spittle, slaver; from the root of E. spit. See Spit to eject from the mouth, and cf. Spatter.] 1. A mark on a substance or body made by foreign matter; a blot; a place discolored.
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!
Shak.
2. A stain on character or reputation; something that soils purity; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish.
Yet Chloe, sure, was formed without a spot.
Pope.
3. A small part of a different color from the main part, or from the ground upon which it is; as, the spots of a leopard; the spots on a playing card.
4. A small extent of space; a place; any particular place. "Fixed to one spot." Otway.
That spot to which I point is Paradise.
Milton.
"A jolly place," said he, "in times of old! But something ails it now: the spot is cursed."
Wordsworth.
5. (Zoöl.) A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above its beak.
6. (Zoöl.) (a) A sciænoid food fish (Liostomus xanthurus) of the Atlantic coast of the United States. It has a black spot behind the shoulders and fifteen oblique dark bars on the sides. Called also goody, Lafayette, masooka, and old wife. (b) The southern redfish, or red horse, which has a spot on each side at the base of the tail. See Redfish.
7. pl. Commodities, as merchandise and cotton, sold for immediate delivery. [Broker's Cant]
Crescent spot (Zoöl.), any butterfly of the family Melitæidæ having crescent- shaped white spots along the margins of the red or brown wings. - - Spot lens (Microscopy), a condensing lens in which the light is confined to an annular pencil by means of a small, round diaphragm (the spot), and used in dark-field ilumination; -- called also spotted lens. -- Spot rump (Zoöl.), the Hudsonian godwit (Limosa hæmastica). -- Spots on the sun. (Astron.) See Sun spot, ander Sun. -- On, or Upon, the spot, immediately; before moving; without changing place.
It was determined upon the spot.
Swift. Syn. -- Stain; flaw; speck; blot; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish; place; site; locality.
Spot, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spotted; p. pr. & vb. n. Spotting.] 1. To make visible marks upon with some foreign matter; to discolor in or with spots; to stain; to cover with spots or figures; as, to spot a garnment; to spot paper.
2. To mark or note so as to insure recognition; to recognize; to detect; as, to spot a criminal. [Cant]
3. To stain; to blemish; to taint; to disgrace; to tarnish, as reputation; to asperse.
My virgin life no spotted thoughts shall stain.
Sir P. Sidney.
If ever I shall close these eyes but once, May I live spotted for my perjury.
Beau. & Fl.
To spot timber, to cut or chip it, in preparation for hewing.
Spot, v. i. To become stained with spots.
Spot"less, a. Without a spot; especially, free from reproach or impurity; pure; untainted; innocent; as, a spotless mind; spotless behavior.
A spotless virgin, and a faultless wife.
Waller.
Syn. -- Blameless; unspotted; unblemished; pure; immaculate; irreproachable. See Blameless.
-- Spot"less*ly, adv. -- Spot"less*ness, n.
Spot"ted, a. Marked with spots; as, a spotted garment or character. "The spotted panther." Spenser.
Spotted fever (Med.), a name applied to various eruptive fevers, esp. to typhus fever and cerebro-spinal meningitis. -- Spotted tree (Bot.), an Australian tree (Flindersia maculosa); -- so called because its bark falls off in spots.
Spot"ted*ness, n. State or quality of being spotted.
Spot"ter (?), n. One who spots.
Spot"ti*ness (?), n. The state or quality of being spotty.
Spot"ty (?), a. Full of spots; marked with spots.
Spous"age (?; 48), n. [OF. espousaige, from espouser. See Spouse, v. t.] Espousal. [Obs.] Bale.
Spous"al (?), a. [See Espousal, Sponsal, and Spouse.] Of or pertaining to a spouse or marriage; nuptial; matrimonial; conjugal; bridal; as, spousal rites; spousal ornaments. Wordsworth.
Spous"al, n. [See Espousal, Spouse.] Marriage; nuptials; espousal; -- generally used in the plural; as, the spousals of Hippolita. Dryden.
Boweth your head under that blissful yoke . . . Which that men clepeth spousal or wedlock.
Chaucer.
the spousals of the newborn year.
Emerson.
Spouse (?), n. [OF. espous, espos, fem. espouse, F. époux, épouse, fr. L. sponsus, sponsa, prop. p. p. of spondere, sponsum, to promise solemnly, to engage one's self. Cf. Despond, Espouse, respond, Sponsor.] 1. A man or woman engaged or joined in wedlock; a married person, husband or wife.
At last such grace I found, and means I wrought, That that lady to my spouse had won.
Spenser.
2. A married man, in distinct from a spousess or married woman; a bridegroom or husband. [Obs.]
At which marriage was [were] no person present but the spouse, the spousess, the Duchess of Bedford her mother, the priest, two gentlewomen, and a young man.
Fabyan.
Spouse (?), v. t. [See Espouse, and Spouse, n.] To wed; to espouse. [Obs.]
This markis hath her spoused with a ring.
Chaucer.
Though spoused, yet wanting wedlock's solemnize.
Spenser.
She was found again, and spoused to Marinell.
Spenser.
Spouse"-breach` (?), n. Adultery. [Obs.]
Spouse"less, a. Destitute of a spouse; unmarried.
Spous"ess, n. A wife or bride. [Obs.] Fabyan.
Spout (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spouted; p. pr. & vb. n. Spouting.] [Cf. Sw. sputa, spruta, to spout, D. spuit a spout, spuiten to spout, and E. spurt, sprit, v., sprout, sputter; or perhaps akin to E. spit to eject from the mouth.] 1. To throw out forcibly and abudantly, as liquids through an office or a pipe; to eject in a jet; as, an elephant spouts water from his trunk.
Who kept Jonas in the fish's maw Till he was spouted up at Ninivee?
Chaucer.
Next on his belly floats the mighty whale . . . He spouts the tide.
Creech.
2. To utter magniloquently; to recite in an oratorical or pompous manner.
Pray, spout some French, son.
Beau. & Fl.
3. To pawn; to pledge; as, spout a watch. [Cant]
Spout, v. i. 1. To issue with with violence, or in a jet, as a liquid through a narrow orifice, or from a spout; as, water spouts from a hole; blood spouts from an artery.
All the glittering hill Is bright with spouting rills.
Thomson.
2. To eject water or liquid in a jet.
3. To utter a speech, especially in a pompous manner.
Spout, n. [Cf. Sw. spruta a squirt, a syringe. See Spout, v. t.] 1. That through which anything spouts; a discharging lip, pipe, or orifice; a tube, pipe, or conductor of any kind through which a liquid is poured, or by which it is conveyed in a stream from one place to another; as, the spout of a teapot; a spout for conducting water from the roof of a building. Addison. "A conduit with three issuing spouts." Shak.
In whales . . . an ejection thereof [water] is contrived by a fistula, or spout, at the head.
Sir T. Browne.
From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide.
Pope.
2. A trough for conducting grain, flour, etc., into a receptacle.
3. A discharge or jet of water or other liquid, esp. when rising in a column; also, a waterspout.