springe

present singular third person springes · participle present springing · participle present springeing · participle past springed · past springed

1. obsoleteTo sprinkle; to scatter.

plural springes

1. obsoleteA snare.

   Ay, springes to catch woodcocks

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], line 114

   3 more examples

   Look how a mavis, or a pigeòn, / In any grove caught with a springe or net […]

   1614: The Odysses of Homer by George Chapman, book 23 line 594

   With hairy Sprindges we the Birds betray

   1714: The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope, 2nd edn., canto 2 line 25

   ’twas my joy / With store of springes o’er my shoulder hung / To range the open heights where woodcocks run / Along the smooth green turf.

   c. 1799, William Wordsworth, The Prelude, London: Moxon, published 1850, Book 1, Introduction, p. 16

present singular third person springes · participle present springing · participle present springeing · participle past springed · past springed

1. transitiveTo catch in a springe; to ensnare.

   By an active poacher who had hit a hare / From the other barrel, tired of springeing game

   1866, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, and Other Poems, page 310