Shive vs Spile - What's the difference?
shive | spile |
A slice, especially of bread.
* 1980 , Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers :
(obsolete) A sheave.
A beam or plank of split wood.
A flat, wide cork for plugging a large hole.
(obsolete) A splinter; a particle of fluff on the surface of cloth or other material.
(paper-makin) A particle of impurity in finished paper.
* 2006 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day (Vintage 2007), page 50:
* 2010 , ,
A splinter.
A spigot or plug used to stop the hole in a barrel or cask.
*1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
*:So I felt my way down the passage back to the vault, and recked not of the darkness, nor of Blackbeard and his crew, if only I could lay my lips to liquor. Thus I groped about the barrels till near the top of the stack my hand struck on the spile of a keg, and drawing it, I got my mouth to the hold.
(US) A spout inserted in a maple (or other tree) to draw off sap.
To plug (a hole) with a spile.
To draw off (a liquid) using a spile.
To provide (a barrel, tree etc.) with a spile.
To support by means of spiles.
(US, dialect, ambitransitive) spoil.
As nouns the difference between shive and spile
is that shive is a slice, especially of bread or shive can be (obsolete) a splinter; a particle of fluff on the surface of cloth or other material or shive can be or shive can be while spile is a splinter or spile can be a pile; a post or girder.As a verb spile is
to plug (a hole) with a spile or spile can be to support by means of spiles or spile can be (us|dialect|ambitransitive) spoil.shive
English
Etymology 1
(wikipedia shive) A parallel form of (sheave), from a (etyl) base which probably existed in (etyl) (though is not attested before the Middle English period). Cognate with (etyl) Scheibe, late (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- In my cool room with the shutters shut and the thin shives of air and light coming through the slats, I cried myself to sleep in an overloud selfpitying transport.
Etymology 2
From a (etyl) base which probably existed in Old English (though is not attested before the Middle English period). Cognate with (etyl) Schebe, (etyl) scheef.Noun
(en noun)Etymology 3
Variant of shiv.Noun
(en noun)- So every alleyway down here, every shadow big enough to hide a shive artist with a grudge, is a warm invitation to rewrite history.
Etymology 4
See shivaNoun
A Life of Learning
- There are some cultural details in Schissel’s story that are specific to the Jewish community: the family sits shive (seven days of mourning for the dead), and the preference for silence at that time.