spirel (spir)

[Also spear (formerly also speer ), now commonly a ociated with spear1; = Dan. spire , a spar, germ, shoot, spir, a spar, spire (in arch.); perhaps connected with spikel and spine, or with spear1.] 1. A sprout or shoot of a plant. An ook comth of a litel spire . Chaucer , Troilus, ii. 1335. 2. A stalk of gra or some similar plant; a spear. Shal neuere spir springen vp. Piers Plowman (C), xiii. 180. Pointed Spires of Flax, when green, Will Ink supply, and Letters mark unseen. Congreve, tr. of Ovid's Art of Love. 3. The continuation of the trunk in a more or le excurrent tree above the point where branching begins. No tops to be received, except the spire and such other top or limb as may be grown on the main piece [British oak for navy contracts]. Laslett , Timber, p. 72. 4. A name of various tall gra es, as the marram, Ammophila a rund in ace a; the reed canary gra , Phalaris a rund in ace a; and the common reed, Phragmites communis. Britten and Holland, Eng. Plant Names. [Prov. Eng.]-5. In mining, the tube carrying the train to the charge in the blast-hole: so called from the spires of gra or rushes used for the purpose. Also called reed or rush.-6. A body that shoots up to a point; a tapering body; a conical or pyramidal body; specifically, in arch., the tapering part of a steeple rising above the tower; a steeple; the great pinnacle, often of wood covered with lead, frequently crowning the cro ing of the nave in large churches. The earliest spires, in the architectural sense, were merely pyramidal or conical roofs, specimens of which exist in some of the oldest Romanesque buildings. These roofs, becoming gradually elongated and more and more acute, resulted at length in the graceful tapering spire. Among the many existing medieval examples, that of Salisbury Cathedral is one of the finest; that of Senlis Cathedral, France, though not of great size, is one of the earliest of fully developed spires, and is admired for the purity and elegance of its design. The spires of medieval architecture are generally square, octagonal, or circular in plan; they are sometimes solid, more frequently hollow, and are variously ornamented with bands encircling them, with panels more or le enriched, and with piercings and spire-lights, which are of infinite variety. Their angles are sometimes crocketed, and they are often terminated by a finial. In later examples the general pyramidal outline is obtained by diminishing the diameter of the structure in succe ive stages, and Spire of Senlis this has been imitated in modern spires, Cathedral, France; in which the forms and details of cla ic early 13th century. architecture have been applied to an architectural creation e entially medieval. The term spire is sometimes restricted to signify such tapering structures, crowning towers or turrets, as have parapets at their base, while when the spire rises from the exterior of the wall of the tower, without the intervention of a parapet, it is called a broach . See also cuts under broach , 10, rood - steeple , and transept . The glorious temple rear'd Her pile, far off appearing like a mount Of alabaster, topt with golden spires. Milton, P. R., iv. 548. 7. The top or uppermost point of a thing; the summit. To silence that Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch'd, Would seem but modest. Shak., Cor., 1. 9. 24. spirel (spir), v.; pret. and pp. spired, ppr. spir ing. [ Yon cypre spiring high, With pine and cedar spreading wide Their darksome boughs on either side. Words worth, White Doe of Rylstone, iv. II. trans. 14. To shoot or send forth. IMG:content-1767.png:[blocks in formation] 2. To furnish with a spire or spires. Like rampired walls the houses lean, All spired and domed and turreted, Sheer to the valley's darkling green. W. E. Henley , From a Window in Princes Street,