spile
1 Americannoun
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a peg or plug of wood, especially one used as a spigot.
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a spout for conducting sap from the sugar maple.
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a heavy wooden stake or pile.
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Mining. forepole.
verb (used with object)
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to stop up (a hole) with a spile or peg.
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to furnish with a spigot or spout, as for drawing off a liquid.
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to tap by means of a spile.
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to furnish, strengthen, or support with spiles or piles.
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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a heavy timber stake or pile
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a spout for tapping sap from the sugar maple tree
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a plug or spigot
verb
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to provide or support with a spile
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to tap (a tree) with a spile
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dialect a splinter
Etymology
Origin of spile
1505–15; < Middle Dutch or Middle Low German spile splinter, peg; cognate with German Speil
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Peeta’s found a good vein and the water begins to gush from the spile.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
I have the pearl, though, secured in a parachute with the spile and the medicine at my waist.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
He and Finnick take turns opening up the hole with the awl and the knives until it can hold the spile.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
Tie up the spile and the tube of medicine in the parachute and fix it to my belt with vine.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
Finnick and I stand with our weapons poised while he works the spile in, but no threat appears.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
Many tech stocks were having a rough start after Broadcom’s fiscal second-quarter report sparked a 15.5% decline in the stock—and spiled across the sector.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
And she vowed it was spiled, while Jack looked jest as though he could scrumplicate me.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 93. July 30, 1887 by
A thocht ahint, in runkled breeks, A’ spiled wi’ lyin’ by for weeks, The guidman follows closs, an’ cleiks The sonsie missis; His sarious face at aince bespeaks The day that this is.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 14 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis
"I hope they ain't spiled the child," she said.
From Rimrock Trail by Dunn, J. Allan, (Joseph Allan)
Now, you quarrelsome little whelps," said Si, after quiet had been restored, "you've got to take them rations that you've spiled for yourselves.
From Si Klegg, Book 6 (of 6) Si And Shorty, With Their Boy Recruits, Enter On The Atlanta Campaign by McElroy, John
The ship passed between the long rows of spiling with nice judgment.
From The Best Short Stories of 1919 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story by O'Brien, Edward J. (Edward Joseph Harrington)
Then the spiling gave way under the strain that for several minutes had been put upon it, and the dam went out with a crash and a roar, accompanied by a series of terrifying explosions.
From Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders in the Great North Woods by Flower, Jessie Graham [pseud.]
"Faix—we wouldn't be afther spiling your honer's divarsion, my lord, on no account," said another.
From The Kellys and the O'Kellys by Trollope, Anthony
Here his feet were close to the water, but he supported himself on a cross rail nailed from one section of the spiling to another.
From Young Hunters of the Lake by Bonehill, Ralph
I rushed forrard, and raised her to my arms: spiling thereby a new weskit and a pair of crimson smalcloes.
From The Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush by Thackeray, William Makepeace
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
