Dictionary

spiry en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈspaɪəɹi/

Etymology

Etymology tree English spire Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English spiry From spire + -y.

Meanings

1. Like or resembling a spire.
   • In theſe lone walls (their days eternal bound) / Theſe moſs-grown domes with ſpiry turrets crown'd, / Where awful arches make a noon-day night, / And the dim windows ſhed a ſolemn light; / Thy eyes diffus'd a reconciling ray, / And gleams of glory brighten'd all the day. 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 424:
2. Abounding in spires.
   • But the calmest region is the upland, where human life is spread out beneath the bodily eye, where the mind roves from the peasant's nest to the spiry town, from the school-house to the churchyard, […] 1870, Harriet Martineau, Deerbrook, page 263:
3. Of a spiral form; wreathed; curled; serpentine.
   • Hid in the ſpiry volumes of the ſnake, / I lurk'd within the covert of a Brake; / Not yet deſcry'd. 1674 (date written), John Dryden, The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man: An Opera. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1677, →OCLC, Act IV, page 29:

Forms