spur
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /spɜː/
ipa: /spɝ/
ipa: /spʌr/
ipa: /spøː/
note: Liverpool, fair–fur merger
ipa: /speː/
note: Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger
ipa: /spɛː/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /spɜː(ɹ)/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
homophone: spare (fair–fur merger)
Forms: form: spurs
form: spurring
form: spurred
form: spurred
Etymology: From Middle English spure, spore, from Old English spora, spura, from Proto-West Germanic *spurō, from Proto-Germanic *spurô, from Proto-Indo-European *sperH- (“to kick”).
Senses: examples: text: Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head! Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood; Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!
ref: c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], line 339:
glosses: To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.
examples: text: My desire / (More sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth...
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], line 4:
text: But the latest Santa Fe development, while not spurring the Rock Island to any further acceleration, has drawn fire from a totally unexpected quarter.
ref: 1940 May, “Overseas Railways: Acceleration Proceeds in U.S.A.”, in Railway Magazine, page 298:
text: What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq.
ref: 2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times:
synonyms: word: incite
word: stimulate
word: instigate
word: impel
word: drive
word: abet
word: actuate
word: goose
word: send
word: sting
word: bring about
word: cheer
word: drive
word: encourage
word: egg on
word: engender
word: evoke
word: excite
word: foment
word: goad
word: grill
word: ignite
word: impel
word: incite
word: induce
word: inflame
word: instigate
word: invoke
word: lash
word: motive
word: motivate
word: move
word: obligate
word: oblige
word: push
word: promote
word: prompt
word: provoke
word: rouse
word: set off
word: spark off
word: spur
word: spur on
word: stimulate
word: stir
word: stir up
word: stoke
word: tempt
word: urge
word: whet
word: whip up
glosses: To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object
examples: text: to spur boots
glosses: To put spurs on.
glosses: To press forward; to travel in great haste.
examples: text: It spurs off the Robin Hood line, providing ten miles of single-line test track with a three-mile double section, capable of testing up to 75mph.
ref: 2021 June 16, Andrew Mourant, “Plans for new test centre remain on track: Testing for rolling stock and infrastructure”, in RAIL, number 933, page 42:
glosses: To form a spur (senses 17-18 of the noun)
Derived terms: spur on