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To throw out with force from a narrow orifice; to eject; to spurt out. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

; a shade; also, an apparition. See Spright. Gaping graves received the wandering, guilty sprite. Dryden.

See Sprightful, Sprightfully, Sprightliness, Sprightly, etc.

A sail extended by a sprit.

A fine genius, or man of wit. "A man of letters and a bel esprit." W. Irving.

See Bowsprit.

A large boom or spar, which projects over the stem of a ship or other vessel, to carry sail forward.

Spirit. Esprit de corps (, a French phrase much used by English writers to denote the common spirit pervading the members of a body or association of persons. It implies sympathy, enthusiasm, devotion, and jealous regard for the honor of the body as a whole.

A witticism.

A sprite, or spirit, imagined as inhabiting the water. J. R. Drake.

Pieces of hard wood bolted to the sides of the bowsprit, to reeve the fore-topmast stays through; -- called also bee blocks. Bee beetle (Zoöl.), a beetle (Trichodes apiarius) parasitic in beehives. -- Bee bird (Zoöl.), a bird that eats the honeybee, as the European flycatcher, and the American kingbird. -- Bee flower…

ood; the taking of life, murder; manslaughter; destruction. So wills the fierce, avenging sprite, Till blood for blood atones. Hood.

A rope or chain to confine the bowsprit of a ship downward to the stem or cutwater; -- usually in the pl.

also called a knighthead, rising just within the stem in a ship, on either side of the bowsprit, to secure its end.

e), destructive to beans. -- Dolphin striker (Naut.), a short vertical spar under the bowsprit.

An imaginary supernatural being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks. Every elf, and fairy sprite, Hop as light as bird from brier. Shak.

A large, strong rope, reaching from the foremast head to the bowsprit, to support the mast. See Illust. under Ship.

A Venetian vessel, with a square stern, having only a mainmast, jigger mast, and bowsprit; also a sloop of war ship-rigged.

To fasten (a bowsprit) to the stem of a vessel by lashings of rope or chain, or by a band of iron. Totten.

The lashing or iron band by which the bowsprit of a vessel is secured to the stem to opposite the lifting action of the forestays. Gammoning fashion, in the style of gammoning lashing, that is, having the turns of rope crossed. -- Gammoning hole (Naut.), a hole cut through the knee of the head of a vessel for the purp…