spit-lockingn.
Military.
(See quots.)
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > earthwork or rampart > [noun] > construction of > action of cutting groove with pick-axe
spit-locking1834
1834 J. S. Macaulay Treat. Field Fortification 49 Having set up the profiles, trace with a pick-axe (note Termed ‘spit-locking’) the escarp and counterscarp lines.
1892 G. Philips Text Bk. Fortif. Sandhurst (ed. 5) 153 Cutting a groove along the surface of the ground with the point of a pick (spit-locking).
Derivatives
spit-lock v.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > earthwork or rampart > protect or surround with rampart [verb (transitive)] > cut groove with pickaxe
spit-lock1892
1892 G. Philips Text Bk. Fortif. Sandhurst (ed. 5) 154 The bounding lines of the parapet..may be spit-locked.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1834