c1415 (c1395) G. Chaucer Merchant's Tale (Lansd.) (1873) l. 1633 Þan he seide his spirte [c1405 Hengwrt Spirit] was att ese Þan is quod he noþinge may me displese.

a1425 Rule St. Benet (Lansd.) (1902) 2 (MED) Þat erin hauis, herkins wat þe haly spirt sais in haly writ.

?1541 R. Copland Galen's Fourth Bk. Terapeutyke sig. Hij^v, in Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens Yf some thing passe in the myddes of the way of the spert, y^t is the ayre, forth w^t it bredeth the coughe.

1578 J. Keltridge Expos., & Readynges 143 That it is the worke of the spirte, take that in the Prophet, they shalbe all taught of God.

a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) ii. xiv. §4. 357 Euery Poet is inspired, with a kind of heauenly spirt.

1683 in S. Annesley Contin. Morning-exercise Questions xxxi. 1010 It is impossible, the Organs of our Bodies, or Faculties of our Souls, should Praise God aright, unless this Spirt of God fill them.

1782 J. Elphinston tr. Martial Epigrams xii. ccxi. [= iii. xcvii.] 465 Let not Snow..chill this bundle of spirt.

1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World i. 5 A small spirt of wind would now run us into fair weather.

1799 Naval Chron. 1 440 Orders came down..to sail from Cawsand Bay the first spirt of wind.

1805 Naval Chron. 13 243 She sails the first spirt of Wind.

1837 T. Hook Jack Brag III. v. 212 I think we shall have a spirt of wind presently.

1829 T. P. Thompson in Westm. Rev. Jan. 240 If all the absentees were to come back in a flock, it would undoubtedly cause a spirt of employment and felicity in Ireland. But as soon as this spirt was over, the effect would be the same.

1843 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) iv. 44 The strife,..after breaking out afresh some twice or thrice in certain inconsiderable spirts and dashes, died away in silence.

1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Man. Brit. Rural Sports ii. ii. ii. 386/1 On the days intervening between the gallops a very short and quick spirt will serve to freshen the horse's wind.

1883 A. Thomas Mod. Housewife 142 That dinner's only a spirt, you know.

1634 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World (new ed.) I. 446 These Filberds..within their belly..haue in the mids a little chit or spirt [1601 spurt] as if it were a nauill.

1642 T. Fuller Holy State iii. v. 162 He that eats cherries with Noblemen shall have his eyes spirted out with the stones.

1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess vii. 152 Red with spirted purple of the vats.

1845 P. Barlow Manuf. in Encycl. Metrop. VIII. 415/1 Some inconvenience is caused by the spirting.

1860 O. W. Holmes Professor at Breakfast-table xii. 364 We all like the spirting up of a fountain.

1584–5 in G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk. (1879) 403 Their corne..was layd flat to the grownde, and so by meanes spirtid.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) iii. v. 8 Shall a few Sprayes of vs,..Our Syens, put in wilde and sauage Stock, Spirt vp so suddenly into the Clouds, And ouer-looke their Grafters?

1764 Warwickshire Letter in Museum Rusticum III. 136 The ears.., in a wet time, will spirt, and so spoil the whole.

1863 W. Barnes Gram. & Gloss. Dorset Dial.

1599 T. Nashe Lenten Stuffe 53 Our Herring smoker..spirted ouer seas to Rome with a Pedlers packe of them.

1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Man. Brit. Rural Sports i. iii. ix. 216 The short running and quick turning of the rabbits, which spirt about even more sharply than hares.

1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days i. iv. 95 They comes out about twice or three times a-week, and spirts a mile alongside of us.