sprattle

American  

[sprat-l] / ˈspræt l /

noun

Scot.

1. a struggle; fight.

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Etymology

Origin of sprattle

1815–25; metathetic variant of spartle to scatter, itself alteration of sparple ( Middle English < Old French esparpeiller < ?)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sprattle

Or thro' the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle, Beneath a scaur.

From Robert Burns by John Campbell Shairp

I thought me on the ourie cattle, Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle O' wintry war, Or thro' the drift, deep-lairing sprattle, Beneath a scaur.

From A Year in the Fields by John Burroughs

List'ning the doors an' winnocks rattle; I think me on the ourie cattle, Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle O' winter war, And thro' the drift, deep-lairing sprattle, Beneath a scaur!

From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (of 2) by John Lyde Wilson

Swith, in some beggar’s haffet squattle; There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle Wi’ ither kindred, jumping cattle, In shoals and nations; Whare horn nor bane ne’er daur unsettle Your thick plantations.

From The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham by Robert Burns

“I thought me on the ourie cattle, Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle O’ wintry war; Or thro’ the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle, Beneath a scaur.

From Life of Robert Burns by Thomas Carlyle

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