ushed a heap of emmets."--_Dryden. Spit_, to throw out
saliva, is irregular, and most properly formed thus: _spit, spit, spitting,
spit. "Spat_ is obsolete."--_Webster's Dict._ It is used in the Bible; as,
"He _spat_ on the ground, and made clay of the spittle."--_John_, ix, 6. L.
Murray gives this verb thus: "Pres. _Spit_; Imp. _spit, spat_; Perf. Part.
_spit, spitten_." NOTE: "_Spitten_ is nearly obsolete."--_Octavo Gram._, p.
106. Sanborn has it thus: "Pres. _Spit_; Imp. _spit_; Pres. Part.
_spitting_; Perf. Part. _spit, spat_."--_Analytical Gram._, p. 48. Cobbett,
at first, taking it in the form, "to _spit_, I _spat, spitten_," placed it
among the seventy which he so erroneously thought should be made regular;
afterwards he left it only in his list of irregulars, thus: "to _spit_, I
_spit, spitten_."--_Cobbett's E. Gram._, of 1832, p. 54. Churchill, in
1823, preferring the older forms, gave it thus: "_Spit, spat_ or _spit,
spitten_ or _spit_."--_New Gram._, p. 111. NOTE:--"Johnson gives _spat_ as
the preterimperfect, and _spit_ or _spitted_ as the participle of this
verb, when it means to pierce through with a pointed instrument: but in
this sense, I believe, it is always regular; while, on the other hand, the
regular form is now never used, when it signifies to eject from the mouth;
though we find in _Luke_, xviii, 32, 'He shall be _spitted_
on.'"--_Churchill's New Gram._, p. 264. This text ought to have been, "He
shall be _spit_ upon."

OBS. 4.--_To strew_ is in fact nothing else than an other mode of spelling
the verb _to strow_; as _shew_ is an obsolete form for _show_; but if we
pronounce the two forms differently, we make them different words. Walker,
and some others, pronounce them alike, _stro_; Sheridan, Jones, Jameson,
and Webster, distinguish them in utterance, _stroo_ and _stro_. This is
convenient for the sake of rhyme, and perhaps therefore preferable. But
_strew_, I incline to think, is properly a regular verb only, though Wells
and Worcester give it otherwise: if _strewn_ has ever been proper, it seems
now to be obsolete. EXAMPLES: "Others cut down branches from the trees, and
_strewed_ them in the way."--_Matt._, xxi, 8. "Gathering where thou hast
not _strewed_."--_Matt._, xxv, 24.

"Their name, their years, _spelt_ by th' unletter'd _muse_,
The place of fame and elegy supply;
And many _a holy text_ around she _strews_,
_That teach_ the rustic moralist to die."--_Gray_.

OBS. 5.--Th