SPECK • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Speck

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noun

Speck n. The blubber of whales or other marine mammals; also, the fat of the hippopotamus.

Speck falls (Naut.), falls or ropes rove through blocks for hoisting the blubber and bone of whales on board a whaling vessel.

Speck n.

A small discolored place in or on anything, or a small place of a color different from that of the main substance; a spot; a stain; a blemish; as, a speck on paper or loth; specks of decay in fruit. "Gray sand, with black specks."

A very small thing; a particle; a mite; as, specks of dust; he has not a speck of money. "Many bright specks bubble up along the blue Egean."

(Zool.) A small etheostomoid fish (Ulocentra stigmaea) common in the Eastern United States.

verb

Speck v. t. (past & past part. specked; pres. part. specking) To cause the presence of specks upon or in, especially specks regarded as defects or blemishes; to spot; to speckle; as, paper specked by impurities in the water used in its manufacture. "Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold."

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Etymology of 'Speck'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Speck" Quotes from Famous Books

... a spot, optically the size of a five-centisol piece, that was the shipbuilding city of Port Carpenter. He turned the boat toward it, firing four more green smokes at three-second intervals. The manipulator-boat started to follow, and the Harriet Barne, now a distant speck in the ...

— The Cosmic Computer • Henry Beam Piper

... undertaking ungroomed. So he sat back on his hind legs and commenced an elaborate toilet. First he licked his tiny hands and worked them like lightning across and down his face. This he continued for a full minute, until his whiskers bristled like tiny needles, without a speck of dust throughout their length. Then he combed the matted fur of his waistcoat with his teeth, and smoothed and polished it until every hair was a gleaming strand of silk. Finally he turned his attention to his back and sides, twisting ...

— "Wee Tim'rous Beasties" - Studies of Animal life and Character • Douglas English

... a simple speck of protoplasm void of visible organization—a mere jelly to hold the invisible life power—carries within itself in that invisible spiritual element the destiny of myriads of animal beings, and according to the nature of ...

— Buchanan's Journal of Man, May 1887 - Volume 1, Number 4 • Various

... any, I will call them back." He called out "Sambo!" which was the name of the Corporal, "Where track?" Sambo pointed to a blade of spinifex. I asked "Where?" He answered, "There." So I got off my horse, and there was a tiny speck of blood which had dropped on the root, and had not been washed off by the rain. It turned out the Myalls had been carrying the flesh of my horses, and the blood ...

— Reminiscences of Queensland - 1862-1869 • William Henry Corfield

... was interrupted by O'Connell, gently laying his hand on his shoulder, and pointing to the ship-of-war at anchor, as he exclaimed—"A speck ...

— Irish Wit and Humor - Anecdote Biography of Swift, Curran, O'Leary and O'Connell • Anonymous

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