spiry

English

Etymology

From spire +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspaɪəɹi/
• Rhymes: -aɪəɹi

Adjective

spiry (comparative more spiry, superlative most spiry)

1. Like or resembling a spire.
   • 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 424:

     In theſe lone walls (their days eternal bound) / Theſe moſs-grown domes with ſpiry turrets crown'd, / Where awful arches make a noon-day night, / And the dim windows ſhed a ſolemn light; / Thy eyes diffus'd a reconciling ray, / And gleams of glory brighten'd all the day.

2. Abounding in spires.
   • 1870, Harriet Martineau, Deerbrook, page 263:

     But the calmest region is the upland, where human life is spread out beneath the bodily eye, where the mind roves from the peasant's nest to the spiry town, from the school-house to the churchyard, […]

3. Of a spiral form; wreathed; curled; serpentine.
   • 1674 (date written), John Dryden, The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man: An Opera. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1677, →OCLC, Act IV, page 29:

     Hid in the ſpiry volumes of the ſnake, / I lurk'd within the covert of a Brake; / Not yet deſcry'd.