Search for crossword answers and clues
Tree-tapping spigot
Answer for the clue "Tree-tapping spigot ", 5 letters:
spile
Alternative clues for the word spile
Word definitions for spile in dictionaries
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
A spile is a small wooden or metal peg used to control the flow of air into, and carbon dioxide out of, a cask of ale . It also can be used to obtain water from a tree .
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
Etymology 1 n. 1 (context obsolete or dialectal English) A splinter. 2 A spigot or plug used to stop the hole in a barrel or cask. 3 (context US English) A spout inserted in a maple (or other tree) to draw off sap. vb. 1 To plug (a hole) with a spile. 2 ...
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
tap or spout for drawing maple sugar, 1844, from Northern English dialect spile "splinter" (1510s), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German spile "splinter, skewer, bar, spindle," German Speiler "skewer;" perhaps related to spike (n.1).
Usage examples of spile.
They had washed and triple rinsed innumerable coils of plastic tubing, many buckets of spiles, and a dozen implements of the stainless steel variety.
Men were unloading spiles from a cable car that ran out on the pier on a little construction railway, as well as other material with which to fill in the pier.
I was passable enough when I went with the tinker, though nothing to boast of then: but what with blowing the fire with my mouth when I was young, and spileing my complexion, and singeing my hair off, and swallering the smoke.