spence

¹ American  

[spens] / spɛns /

noun

British Dialect.

1. a pantry.

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Spence ² American  

[spens] / spɛns /

noun

1. a male given name, form of Spencer.

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spence ¹ British  

/ spɛns /

noun

1. dialect

   1. a larder or pantry

   2. any monetary allowance

   3. a parlour, esp in a cottage

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Spence ² British  

/ spɛns /

noun

1. Sir Basil ( Unwin ). 1907–76, Scottish architect, born in India; designed Coventry Cathedral (1951)

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Etymology

Origin of spence

1350–1400; Middle English spense, spence < Middle French despense pantry < Medieval Latin dīspēnsa, noun use of feminine of dīspēnsus, past participle of dīspendere to weigh out; dispense

Example Sentences

Our bardie, lanely, keeps the spence parlor Sin' Mailie's dead.

From Robert Burns How To Know Him by Neilson, William Allan

I said, speaking through the door of the spence as she moved about the house, ordering the porridge-making and keeping an eye on the hen's meat as well.

From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)

It consisted of three apartments,—the cow-house at one end, the kitchen or house in the middle, and the spence at the other end. 

From Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland A.D. 1803 by Shairp, John Campbell

"The thresher's weary flinging-tree The lee-lang day had tired me: And whan the day had closed his e'e, Far i' the west, Ben i' the spence, right pensivelie, I gaed to rest."

From Queechy, Volume I by Warner, Susan

And now we'll go down to the spence, where ye can meet Mr. Burns.

From Nancy Stair A Novel by Lane, Elinor Macartney