Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One that turns a roasting spit.
- noun A roasting spit that can be turned.
- noun A dog formerly used in a treadmill to turn a roasting spit.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A person who turns a spit.
- noun A kind of dog of small size, long-bodied and short-legged, formerly used to work a kind of treadmill-wheel by means of which a spit was turned.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who turns a spit; hence, a person engaged in some menial office.
- noun (Zoöl.) A small breed of dogs having a long body and short crooked legs. These dogs were formerly much used for turning a spit on which meat was roasting.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A person employed in turning a
spit for the purpose of roasting meat. - noun archaic A short-legged, long-bodied
dog , nowextinct , bred to run on a wheel to turn a spit.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a roasting spit that can be turned
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word turnspit.
Examples
-
Buffon calls the turnspit the _Basset à jambes torses_, but some of the breed are said to have straight legs.
Anecdotes of Dogs Edward Jesse 1824
-
At the mention of the word “wheel” several turnspit dogs, who had been brought to church as foot warmers, ran for the door.
-
The picture above is of Whiskey, the last surviving specimen of a turnspit dog, albeit stuffed.
-
At the mention of the word “wheel” several turnspit dogs, who had been brought to church as foot warmers, ran for the door.
-
The picture above is of Whiskey, the last surviving specimen of a turnspit dog, albeit stuffed.
-
I remember him a little dirty turnspit boy in the house of Avenel, that every body in a frosty morning like this warmed his fingers by kicking or cuffing! and now he is
The Monastery 2008
-
There is even a sort of turnspit Selenite, very common, whose duty and only delight it is to apply the motive power for various small appliances.
First Men in the Moon Herbert George 2006
-
All good people of either persuasion, royalty or commonalty, knowing his kitchen-range to be cold, no longer would play turnspit.
Lorna Doone Richard Doddridge 2004
-
I showed them my economical furnace, my turnspit by clock – work, my roasting apparatus, and my vaporiser.
-
Hence, when he waddled across the court to and from his old grey pony, he somewhat resembled a turnspit walking upon its hind legs.
Waverley 2004
chained_bear commented on the word turnspit
In the Bewick book, looks quite like a corgi or Jack Russell-type dog.
August 26, 2008
yarb commented on the word turnspit
I knew what I was about in the art of dressing meat. Dame Leonarda, with whom I had served my time, might have passed for a very decent plain cook; but a mere turnspit to dame Jacintha.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 2 ch. 1
September 13, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word turnspit
In former times, turnspits were operated variously by clockwork mechanisms, dogs enclosed in a revolving round cage (a larger version of the pet gerbil treadmill), or by young apprentices with perpetually burned faces.
January 7, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word turnspit
"One who turns a spit; hence, a person engaged in some menial office."
--GNU Webster's 1913
October 23, 2012
qms commented on the word turnspit
The fellow simply can't spurn it -
Will endlessly labor to earn it.
In pursuit of a rhyme
He'll spend all his time
Employed like a dog as a turnspit.
June 5, 2014
chained_bear commented on the word turnspit
"Turnspits had all but disappeared by the 1630s: jacks were becoming mechanised, propelled by gravity weights at the end of tightly wound springs, which unravelled over about half an hour."
--Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 133
January 11, 2017