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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Nautical A pole that extends diagonally across a fore-and-aft sail from the lower part of the mast to the peak of the sail.
  2. n. Nautical A bowsprit.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To sprout; bud; germinate, as barley steeped for malt.
  2. To throw out with force from a narrow orifice; eject; spurt.
  3. n. A sprout; a shoot.
  4. n. A stick; a pole; especially, a boatman's pole.
  5. n. Nautical:
  6. n. A small pole, spar, or boom which crosses the sail of a boat diagonally from the mast to the upper aftmost corner, which it is used to extend and elevate. The lower end of the sprit rests in a becket, called the snotter, which encircles the mast at that place. See cuts under snotterand spritsail.
  7. n. The bowsprit.
  8. n. A rush: same as sprat, 1.
  9. n. See the quotation.
  10. To split.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A spar between mast and upper outer corner of a spritsail on sailing boats.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To throw out with force from a narrow orifice; to eject; to spurt out.
  2. v. To sprout; to bud; to germinate, as barley steeped for malt.
  3. n. A shoot; a sprout.
  4. n. A small boom, pole, or spar, which crosses the sail of a boat diagonally from the mast to the upper aftmost corner, which it is used to extend and elevate.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a light spar that crosses a fore-and-aft sail diagonally

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, from Old English sprēot, pole; see sper- in Indo-European roots.

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‘sprit’ has been looked up 601 times, added to 4 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 7.