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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

†SPATTLE, n.1, v. Also sputtle.

I. n. A plough-spade or other small spade. Also in Eng. dial. Comb. Spattle-hoe, id. See also Pattle.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 460:
Another, perhaps, gives the sock, another the stilts, another the spattle.Sc. 1834 Tait's Mag. I. 528:
Farmers became country gentlemen; changing the spattle-hoe for the riding-whip.

II. v. With up: to shovel up, dig up with a spattle.Per. 1843–45 Trans. Highl. Soc. 65:
Sputtling up the grass sward by road-sides, ditch-bottoms, and hedge-banks.

[In form the same as rare or obs. Eng. spattle, a spatula, and poss. an extended meaning of this, influenced by Pattle, q.v., which seems to be an earlier deriv. from the same orig.]

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