spall

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /spɔːl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American, without the cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /spɔl/
• (General American, cot–caught merger, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /spɑl/
• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /spɒl/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /spoːl/
• Rhymes: -ɔːl

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”).

• spawl

spall (plural spalls)

1. (countable) A splinter, fragment or chip, especially of stone.
   • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 13:

     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.

2. (uncountable, especially concerning ferroconcrete structures or metal objects) A process of weathering, aging, or other wear that involves the crumbling of the substrate.

   Synonyms: spalling, spallation

   The failure of this bearing involved spall under high load.

   The inspection of this bridge abutment found extensive spall.

• cross-spall

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.
   • 1778, William Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis: A Treatise on Minerals, Mines, and Mining […] :

     Cobbed Ore is the ſpalled which is broke out of the ſolid large ſtones with ſledges

   • 2021 May 5, Paul Stephen, “Restoring the glory of Ribblehead”, in RAIL, number 930, page 39:

     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.

2. (especially of ferroconcrete structures or metal objects) 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.

   • 2025 May 6, Noah Smith, “Thoughts on Sinofuturism: What does it mean for China to be "the future"? And what does that future look like?”, in Noahpinion‎^[1]:

     I know it’s fun to go to a foreign city, look around at the buildings, and make grand sweeping judgements about the relative strength of civilizations over the next thousand years. But next time you find yourself gaping at a sparkling new high-rise in Shenzhen or Chongqing or Dubai, remind yourself: “This too shall spall.”

3. (transitive) To reduce, as irregular blocks of stone, to an approximately level surface by hammering.

• spaller
• spalling

From Italian spalla.

spall (plural spalls)

1. (obsolete, rare) The shoulder.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30, page 265:

     Their mightie ſtrokes their haberieons diſmayld, / And naked made each others manly ſpalles; […]

• Palls, palls