Spile.
1. A small plug of wood for stopping the spile-hole of a barrel or cask. The spile-hole is a small aperture made in the cask when placed on tap, usually near the bung-hole, to afford access to the air, in order to permit the contained liquid to flow freely. 2. A spout for sugar-water (the sap of the sugarmaple tree), which, being inserted in a hole bored in the tree, conducts the water to a trough or pan placed beneath to receive it. [2268] The spiles are sometimes little troughs made by splitting out pieces from a block with a gouge. The same gouge is used to drive into the tree and make a kerf to hold the sharpened end of the spile. A notch is cut by an axe in the tree above the spile, and the sap trickling thereinto is conducted to the bucket. The tool is known as a tapping-gouge.3. (Hydraulic Engineering.) A pile (which see).