span-the stem of span v.1 and span v.2, used in a number of special combs., chiefly of a technical character, as span-beam, -block, -dog, -gutter, -lashing, -piece, -saw[cf.Du.spanzaag, G. spannsäge, Sw.-såg], -shackle(seequots.); span-waist, a slender waist; span-wire, -wormU.S.(seequots.).1847Halliwell, *Span-beam, the great beam..in a barn.1860Eng. & For. Mining Gloss. (ed. 2) 23 Span beam, the horizontal beam passing over the whim in which the upper pivot of the perpendicular axis moves.1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-m. 230 Span-beam, a long wooden beam supporting the head pivot of the drum axle of a gin, and resting at the extremities upon inclined legs.1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 23 Reeve it..through the *span block on the top⁓mast cap.1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 640 Span-blocks, blocks seized into each bight of a strap, long enough to go across a cap, and allow the blocks to hang clear on each side.Ibid. 255 *Span-dogs. Used to lift timber. A pair of dogs linked together, and being hooked at an extended angle, press home with greater strain.1841Hartshorne Salop. Ant.Gloss., *Span-gutter, a drain in a coal mine, formed by one brick being placed flat, and one at either end to keep the soil from falling in.1891Cent.Dict., *Span⁓lashing, a lashing used to secure together two ropes or spars a short distance apart.1836Parker Gloss.Archit. (1850) I. 431 *Span-piece, the name given to the Collar-beam of a roof in Lincolnshire, Wiltshire, and other districts.1875Knight Dict.Mech. 2253/2 *Span-saw, a frame-saw.1750T. R. Blanckley Nav.Expos. 155 *Spanshakle is a large Clasp of Iron, which goes round the End of the Davit upon the Fore-Castle, having a large Bolt, which goes through a Fore-Castle Beam.1846A. Young Naut.Dict. 290 Span⁓shackle, a large bolt with a triangular ring attached to it for lashing anchors or spars thereto.1871Figure-Training 56 A fashionable *span waist ought not to exceed fourteen inches round.1897Pall Mall G. 30 Oct. 6/2 The current..passes out to the main conductor, or overhead wire, which is supported over the centre of the track by insulators attached to *span wires extending from uprights placed on either side of the roadway.1852T. W. Harris Treat. Ins. New Eng. (1862) 458 The caterpillars of the Geometræ of Linnæus,..or geometers, *span-worms, and loopers, have received these several names from their peculiar manner of moving.1885H. C. McCook Tenants of Old Farm 104 A very familiar race of caterpillars, the Geometers, or span⁓worms.