Stile vs Spile - What's the difference?
stile | spile |
A set of steps surmounting a fence or wall, or a narrow gate or contrived passage through a fence or wall, which in either case allows people but not livestock to pass.
* 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
A vertical component of a panel or frame, such as that of a door or window.
A pin set on the face of a dial, to cast a shadow; a style.
(obsolete) A mode of composition; a style.
* Bunyan
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 stile and spile
is that stile is a set of steps surmounting a fence or wall, or a narrow gate or contrived passage through a fence or wall, which in either case allows people but not livestock to pass while spile is a splinter.As a verb spile is
to plug (a hole) with a spile.stile
English
Alternative forms
* (l)Noun
(wikipedia stile) (en noun)- 'Twas very true what Greening said; for of a summer evening I would take the path that led up Weatherbeech Hill, behind the Manor; both because 'twas a walk that had a good prospect in itself, and also a sweet charm for me, namely, the hope of seeing Grace Maskew. And there I often sat upon the stile that ends the path and opens on the down, and watched the old half-ruined house below; and sometimes saw white-frocked Gracie walking on the terrace in the evening sun, and sometimes in returning passed her window near enough to wave a greeting.
- (Moxon)
- May I not write in such a stile as this?