Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small grove; a copse.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A small wood with undergrowth; a clump of trees or shrubs; a small grove or shrubbery.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Same as
spinny .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun UK A small
copse orwood , especially one planted as ashelter forgame birds .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a copse that shelters game
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The spinney was a mixture of beech, ash, sycamore and elm, more recent planting than the woodland they'd been in the previous night.
A Place of Execution McDermid, Val 1999
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I was here alone in a lonely field, at nine of the clock on a winter night, and there, flittering and gliding through the spinney was a something in white.
The Yeoman Adventurer George W. Gough
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The samples of his verse that Mr. Hollinghurst invents are perfectly pitched to be good but not great: "The spinney where the lisping larches / Kiss overhead in silver arches / And in their shadows lovers too / Might kiss and tell their secrets through," is a typical jingling passage.
The (Private) Lives of the Poets Adam Kirsch 2011
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We blew the road and retreated and things went a little quieter, the Northumberland Hussars covered us while we retreated and as we had not slept for 3days and nights, we pulled into a little spinney and had some food, a wash, and slept.
John Keay 2010
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Procurement struggles are like knife fights in a dark alley: no time to show weakness. recommendation to obama: put chuck spinney in charge.
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By the time they got the pipe back together, Spader noticed that the deck wasnt bucking like a crazed spinney fish anymore.
Pendragon: Before the War: Book One of the Travelers D. J. MacHale 2009
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Like when you trip over an old plough left in a spinney between fields, and when you've finished having a good swear you discover the maker's name embossed on a crossbar shouting back at you, albeit somewhat rustily.
Archive 2007-07-01 Peter Ashley 2007
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Like when you trip over an old plough left in a spinney between fields, and when you've finished having a good swear you discover the maker's name embossed on a crossbar shouting back at you, albeit somewhat rustily.
Back to Nature Peter Ashley 2007
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Then its time I showed ya, spinney fish, came a gravelly mans voice I didnt recognize.
The Soldiers of Halla D. J. MacHale 2009
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That spinney head, Spader thought as he and Per both raced toward the bow of the vessel.
Pendragon: Before the War: Book One of the Travelers D. J. MacHale 2009
bilby commented on the word spinney
"And the Trust had long since agreed that it could do little better than see the whole business of thinning the woods, etc., as, well, as tit-for-tat: they would pay nothing for the cutting-back of the various copses and spinneys; and in turn the various wood-cutters and carters would receive the proceeds from the tens of thousands of assorted tree-trunks that were annually removed from Wytham Woods."
- Colin Dexter, 'The Way Through The Woods'.
November 1, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word spinney
"In the middle distance beyond the wide lawn a large house stood, all honey- colored stone and gray slate, adorned with chimneys and gables and towers and roofs and sub- roofs. In the center, over the main house, was a tall, stately clock tower that struck even Quentin as an odd addition to what otherwise looked like a private residence. The clock was in the Venetian style: a single barbed hand circling a face with twenty- four hours marked on it in Roman numerals. Over one wing rose what looked like the green oxidized- copper dome of an observatory. Between house and lawn was a series of inviting landscaped terraces and spinneys and hedges and fountains. Between house and lawn was a series of inviting landscaped terraces and spinneys and hedges and fountains."
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman, p 16
October 5, 2009