spalt

American  

[spawlt] / ˈspɔlt /

noun

1. Also, spalting. random lines, smears, or streaks in the grain of wood, often considered attractive, caused by fungi or by the tree's defensive response to fungi. Excessive spalt may cause brittleness or weakness.

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adjective

1. Also, spalted. (of wood) having a grain marked with random lines, smears, or streaks, often considered attractive, caused by fungi or by the tree's defensive response to fungi.

2. Dialect. (of wood) brittle due to decomposition or dryness.

3. Genetics. relating to or being a type of protein coded for by genes of the same name, found in humans and other diverse species and important in the organism's earliest stage of development.

verb (used without object)

1. (of wood) to develop random lines, smears, or streaks in the grain, often considered attractive, caused by fungi or by the tree's defensive response to fungi.

2. Dialect. to split or splinter.

Other Word Forms

• spalted
  adjective

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

spalt

Spalt, spalt, n. a scaly whitish mineral, used as a flux for metals.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

Of all oak growing in England the park oak is the softest, and far more spalt and brittle than the hedge oak.

From Elizabethan England From 'A Description of England,' by William Harrison by Harrison, William