Word.ws English Dictionary

spall

/spɔːl/US/spɔl/

spall noun: a splinter, fragment or chip, especially of stone.

Noun (1)

spall (plural spalls)

  1. (countable) A splinter, fragment or chip, especially of stone.
    • My father knew Bert Le Feuvre, the foreman of Griffith's yard, and there was a little heap of spawls waiting ready every night in summer after school for me to crack.1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 13
  2. (uncountable, especially concerning ferroconcrete structures or metal objects) A process of weathering, aging, or other wear that involves the crumbling of the substrate.
    • The failure of this bearing involved spall under high load.
    • The inspection of this bridge abutment found extensive spall.
    Synonyms:
    spalling, spallation

Verb

spall (third-person singular simple present spalls, present participle spalling, simple past and past participle spalled)

  1. (ambitransitive) To break into fragments or small pieces.
    • Cobbed Ore is the ſpalled which is broke out of the ſolid large ſtones with ſledges1778, William Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis: A Treatise on Minerals, Mines, and Mining […]
    • Drones will give an idea of the worst bits, but if it's lightly spalled then I don't know if they will necessarily see that.2021 May 5, Paul Stephen, “Restoring the glory of Ribblehead”, in RAIL, number 930, page 39
  2. (especially) To undergo weathering, aging, or other wear that involves the crumbling of the substrate.
    • When the bearing race spalled under high load, it led to the failure of the bearing.
    • Once the concrete had spalled extensively, the bridge could no longer pass an honest inspection.
  3. (transitive) To reduce, as irregular blocks of stone, to an approximately level surface by hammering.

Noun (2)

spall (plural spalls)

  1. (obsolete, rare) The shoulder.
    • Their mightie ſtrokes their haberieons diſmayld, / And naked made each others manly ſpalles; […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30, page 265

Proper noun capitalized: Spall

Spall (plural Spalls)

  1. A surname.

spall meaning in Tamil

spall in Tamil

சிம்பு

Synonyms of spall

Forms of spall

Noun
pluralspalls
alternative formspawl
Verb
third-person singular presentspalls
present participlespalling
past participlespalled
pastspalled
Proper noun
pluralSpalls

Origin of spall

From Middle English spalle (“a chip”) (first documented in 1440), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from the Middle English verb spald (“to split”) (c.1400), from Middle Low German spalden, cognate with Old High German spaltan (“to split”).

From Italian spalla. Doublet of spauld and spatula.

Unknown.

Words formed from spall

Words that rhyme with spall

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spall

What does spall mean?
Spall means a splinter, fragment or chip, especially of stone.
What is spall in Tamil?
Spall in Tamil is சிம்பு. See Spall meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is spall?
Spall can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce spall?
Spall is pronounced /spɔːl/ (UK).
What is the plural of spall?
The plural of spall is spalls.

Words near spall in the dictionary

  1. spales
  2. Spalford
  3. spalike
  4. spaling
  5. spalings
  6. spall
  7. Spalla
  8. spallable
  9. Spallas
  10. spallate
  11. spallation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spall (page history and authors); Spall (page history and authors); spall (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spall.wav.

Cite this entry: “spall.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spall. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.