spittle-staffn.
Now dialect.
A kind of spade or digging implement.
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the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > spade > small spade
spittlea1100
spittle-staff12..
spitter1600
spaddle1669
spattle1824
Tommya1825
12.. Ancr. R. 384 Ȝif eax ne kurue, ne þe spade [v.rr. spitel staf, sputel stef] ne dulue.
1605 in F. Collins Wills & Admin. Knaresborough Court Rolls (1902) I. 252 To Marmaduke Coghill one spitbell [sic] staffe and one iron appell craddell.
1676 E. M. Thompson Corr. Family of Hatton (1878) I. 133 One came behind Mr. Downs and with a spittle staff cleft his scull.
1866 J. E. Brogden Provinc. Words Lincs. Spittle-staff, a spud, used for stubbing thistles.
1877– in Linc. and Durh. glossaries.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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