spelder

English

Noun

spelder (plural spelders)

1. Alternative form of speld (“chip, splinter”)

Verb

spelder (third-person singular simple present spelders, present participle speldering, simple past and past participle speldered)

1. (chiefly Scotland) To split apart.
   • 1860, James Grant, Mary of Lorraine, page 407:

     By St. Andrew ! were he within reach of my hand I could spelder him by one stroke of my axe, yea, spelder him as I would a haddock ! " he added, as another volley of shot and arrows whizzed and rattled on the rocks around them.

   • 1930, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Journal, page 637:

     Outside the kitchen window was a small patch of green, monopolised by various boards laid on rough trestles, which held rows and rows of saith, ling, and cod, all 'speldered' and drying in the sun.

   • 1982, Giles Gordon, William Shakespeare, Shakespeare stories, page 40:

     You have drunk more than the share of two men of your size.' 'Hear her, Callach !' he said, laughing, and he reached out and pulled me down between his speldered thighs.

2. (chiefly Scotland) To spread out; to sprawl.
   • 1893, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Tale of Tod Lapraik:

     So there was he hingin' by a line an' speldering on the craig face, whaur its hieest and steighest.

   • 1934, William Power, My Scotland, page 178:

     The visitor, returning late across the eerie moor, sees a glow in the peat fire, reflected in the eyes of dogs speldered on the floor, and hears the purring of cats in cosy corners.

3. (Yorkshire, dialect) To spell.
   • 1792, A Collection of the Most Esteemed Farces and Entertainments:

     Gul. How do you spell it ? Mar. Nay, makins, I knaw nought o speldering — I'se nea scollard.

   • 1840, Robert Anderson, Anderson's Cumberland ballads:

     I paid three wheyte shillins this varra last week, For paper-patch'd leets, that my scholars meeght see To spelder their words, and ply A B C.

Anagrams

• SLERPed, pedlers, slerped