Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A stick used for stirring.
- To shoot in a scattering manner; spurt.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To spurt or shoot in a scattering manner.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Either of two
Scottish kitchen implements made ofwood ; a flat one for turning oatcakes, or a stick for stirring porridge - verb To
spurt ,spatter orsputter
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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A spurtle is a wooden stick like tool which is able to get right into the corners of the pot, but doesn't resist its path through the porridge like a wooden spoon can.
Archive 2007-06-01 2007
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A spurtle is a wooden stick like tool which is able to get right into the corners of the pot, but doesn't resist its path through the porridge like a wooden spoon can.
por·ridge 2007
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Take a knife (a 'spurtle' is the proper utensil) in the right hand, and some Scotch, or coarse, oatmeal in the left hand, and sprinkle the meal in gradually, stirring it briskly all the time; if any lumps form draw them to the side of the pan and crush them out.
Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery A Manual of Cheap and Wholesome Diet A. G. Payne 1867
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Ugly, old words like piggin and spurtle and keeler, which are all kitchen implements.
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Truly, the voice of the spurtle is heard in the land.
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Whether they are stirred in with a wooden spoon or, as Mitchell advises, with a spurtle or a gruel-tree Shetland usage is probably optional, but the addition of cream or milk – never sugar – completes a winter experience that can only be described as truly halesome.
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One of the best things with which to stir the porridge is a spurtle.
Archive 2007-06-01 2007
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Mix the oats, water and salt in a pot and cook for a while, stirring frequently with your spurtle.
Archive 2007-06-01 2007
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Mix the oats, water and salt in a pot and cook for a while, stirring frequently with your spurtle.
por·ridge 2007
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One of the best things with which to stir the porridge is a spurtle.
por·ridge 2007
trivet commented on the word spurtle
a porridge stirring utensil.
June 6, 2007
bilby commented on the word spurtle
"'Oh,' he would add as an afterthought, 'and would you chust fill up my bottle for me.' The wifie duly filled the old black glass bottle (six to the gallon) with whisky, totted it all up and announced the modest total. 'Ach,' he complained, 'I haven't that much money on me. I can manage if you chust take back the whisky' - which was duly poured back into the keg. At home, he upended bottle, and using his porridge spurtle, he squeezed out the sponge he had inserted earlier and retrieved a couple of satisfying drams. If ever a man deserved a nickname, it was surely 'The Sponger'!"
- 'The Name Game', P.A. MacNab in The Scots Magazine, Dec 2001.
January 12, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word spurtle
Also "spirtle". Akin to a bishkek.
December 23, 2008
sionnach commented on the word spurtle
Maaa! Sammy's been spurtling in the koumiss again!
I imagine this to be something akin to the clettering tool so beloved by Adam Lambsbreath down on the farm.
December 23, 2008
reesetee commented on the word spurtle
Lee Valley has a nice one available here.
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word spurtle
clettering -- yes! and what was the vine?
December 23, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word spurtle
But I never heard "spirtle" as a verb.
December 23, 2008
qroqqa commented on the word spurtle
It could be what Seth did: after all that mollocking in the sukebind he turned to spurtling in the koumiss, and Adam had to cletter it up arter 'im.
December 23, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word spurtle
"'They call you the White Witch, do they not?' the man said, and smiled. It wasn't in any way a pleasant expression.
'Some do. What of it?' I said, taking a good grip on my spurtle and staring him down."
—Diana Gabaldon, An Echo in the Bone (New York: Delacorte Press, 2009), 586
December 17, 2009