sparable n also sparble [phonetics unavailable]. Cp EDD sparrable 'headless nail; sparrowbill.'
1 A short nail or cleat, used to stud heel and sole of a boot to prevent slipping on the ice; hobnail; CHISEL, FROSTER.
1842 JUKES i, 275 I had not got my boots properly fitted [for walking on ice] with 'sparables' and 'chisels.' 1906 LUMSDEN 204 To provide against the slippery ice the soles of our leather boots were covered with sparables. 1922 Sat Ev Post 195 (2 Sep), p. 126 For the most part, the sparables or calks in the Eskimo skin boots did good service. The men gained safer pans, and away they went, copying—jumping—from cake to cake, out over the slow-heaving ice. 1925 Dial Notes v, 343 ~s. Sharp nails; hob nails in boots.
2 Ordinary shoemaker's nail which has worked its way through the heel or sole of a boot or shoe (P 245-61).
T 12-64 Sparables is the [word) we use. It's just a small sprig which gets into the sole of the shoe. 1966 SCAMMELL 26 The Customs officer hobbled down on the ball of one foot and the heel of the other. He had a festered toe caused by a 'sparbel' in his shoe and a day's berry picking. P 224-67 Sparrables are small nails that sometimes work out of your shoes and hurt your feet. [They are not] called sparrables when they are in your shoe properly—only when they have worked out of your shoe and are now sticking in your feet.
