lockspit
English
editEtymology
editApparently: lock (“fastening”) + spit (“spade's depth”) [1]
Noun
editlockspit (plural lockspits)
- (cartography) A trench dug in the ground to mark a boundary or other imaginary line.
- 1937, Transactions of the Institution of Engineers amd Shipbuilders, volume 80, page 8:
- The widening of the river referred to in items […] was carried out by first cutting a V-shaped trench or lockspit throughout the length of the widenings on the line of the proposed new river bank […].
- 1966, Blue Book 1966, Southampton: Ordnance Survey:
- Lockspits will not be shown [on maps] in bogs except where they occur on County, Barony and Townland Boundaries.
Verb
editlockspit (third-person singular simple present lockspits, present participle lockspiting, simple past and past participle lockspited)
- to dig a such a trench
References
edit- ^ “lockspit”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.