spial
See also: spiął
English
Alternative forms
- spyale
- spiall
Etymology
Pronunciation
Audio (Southern England): (file) - IPA(key): /ˈspaɪəl/
- Rhymes: -aɪəl
Noun
spial (countable and uncountable, plural spials)
- (obsolete) Espionage.
- (obsolete) A spy.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- And priuie spials plast in all his way, / To weete what course he takes, and how he fares […]
- 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):
- [ Charles François Dumouriez ], roaming far out, obscure, as King's spial, or sitting sealed up, enchanted in Bastille […]