spiling

[spahy-ling]

noun

a group or mass of piles; spiles.

Origin of spiling

First recorded in 1835–45; spile¹ + -ing¹

spile

[spahyl]

noun

a peg or plug of wood, especially one used as a spigot.

a spout for conducting sap from the sugar maple.

a heavy wooden stake or pile.

Mining. forepole.

verb (used with object), spiled, spil·ing.

to stop up (a hole) with a spile or peg.

to furnish with a spigot or spout, as for drawing off a liquid.

to tap by means of a spile.

to furnish, strengthen, or support with spiles or piles.

Origin of spile

1505–15; < Middle Dutch or Middle Low German spile splinter, peg; cognate with German Speil

spile

[spahyl]Dialect

verb (used with or without object), spiled, spil·ing, noun

spoil.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for spiling

Historical Examples of spiling

Then he took a few turns with the other end about a spiling, and held hard.
Jack Harvey's Adventures
Ruel Perley Smith
I rushed forrard, and raised her to my arms: spiling thereby a new weskit and a pair of crimson smalcloes.
Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush
William Makepeace Thackeray
"'Pears like as if we were spiling the Egyptians," said an old man who had gathered an immense pile of blankets and coats.
The Boys of '61
Charles Carleton Coffin.
With a bound, Willy Horse cleared the spiling and leaped to the river bed to finish his victim.
Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders in the Great North Woods
Jessie Graham Flower
The ship passed between the long rows of spiling with nice judgment.
The Best Short Stories of 1919
Various

British Dictionary definitions for spiling

spile

noun

a heavy timber stake or pile

US and Canadian a spout for tapping sap from the sugar maple tree

a plug or spigot

verb (tr)

to provide or support with a spile

US to tap (a tree) with a spile

Northern English dialect a splinter

Word Origin for spile

C16: probably from Middle Dutch spile peg; related to Icelandic spila skewer, Latin spīna thorn

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for spiling

spile

tap or spout for drawing maple sugar, 1844, from Northern English dialect spile "splinter" (1510s), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German spile "splinter, skewer, bar, spindle," perhaps related to spike (n.1).