English

Alternative forms

• spawl

Noun

spall ‎(plural spalls)

1. A splinter, fragment or chip, especially of stone.
   • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York 2007, p. 13:

     My father knew Bert Le Feuvre, the foreman of Griffith's yard, and there was a little heap of spawls waiting ready every night in summer after school for me to crack.

Translations

Verb

spall ‎(third-person singular simple present spalls, present participle spalling, simple past and past participle spalled)

1. (transitive) To break into fragments or small pieces.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Pryce to this entry?)

2. (transitive) To reduce, as irregular blocks of stone, to an approximately level surface by hammering.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Italian spalla.

Noun

spall ‎(plural spalls)

1. (obsolete, rare) The shoulder.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:

     Their mightie strokes their haberieons dismayld, / And naked made each others manly spalles [...].

Anagrams

• palls