noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   a rope or fetter used to hobble a horse or other animal

Verb

1. 1
   to hobble with a spancel transitive

Etymology

From Dutch or Low German spansel, from spannen (“to bind, harness”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.