Spithead, the eastern portion of the strait which separates the Isle of Wight from the Hampshire coast, 14 m. long, with an average breadth of 4 m.; is a sheltered and safe riding for ships, and as such is much used by the British navy; receives its name from a long “spit” of sandbank jutting out from the mainland. See the Solent.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Spiritualism * Spitzbergen