spur
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
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
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: Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this hour I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting; From helmet to the spur all blood he was.
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi], line 4:
text: Tvvo ſorts of ſpurs ſeem to have been in uſe about the time of the Conqueſt, one called a pryck, having only a ſingle point like the gaffle of a fighting cock; the other conſiſting of a number of points of a conſiderable length, radiating from and revolving on a center, thence named the rouelle or vvheel ſpur.
ref: 1786, Francis Grose, “Tilting Armour”, in A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, […], London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC, page 28:
meronyms: rowel
prick
glosses: A rigid implement, often roughly y-shaped, that is fixed to one's heel for the purpose of prodding a horse. Often worn by, and emblematic of, the cowboy or the knight.
examples: text: I had hardly said the word, when Kit jumped into the saddle, and gave his horse a whip and a spur — and off it cantered, as if it were in as great a hurry to be married as Kit himself.
ref: 1832, The Atheneum, volume 31, page 493:
glosses: A jab given with the spurs.
examples: text: She is a theame of honour and renowne, / A ſpurre to valiant and magnanimous deeds, / Whoſe preſent courage may beate downe our foes, / And fame in time to come canonize us, [...]
ref: c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
glosses: Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.
glosses: An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.
glosses: Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.
examples: text: […] the strong-bas'd promontory / Have I made shake; and by the spurs pluck'd up / The pine and cedar […]
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
text: I do note / That grief and patience, rooted in them both, / Mingle their spurs together.
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], line 57:
glosses: Roots, tree roots.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.
glosses: A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale to strip off the blubber.
topics: business
carpentry
construction
manufacturing
glosses: A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.
topics: architecture
glosses: The short wooden buttress of a post.
topics: architecture
glosses: A projection from the round base of a column, occupying the angle of a square plinth upon which the base rests, or bringing the bottom bed of the base to a nearly square form. It is generally carved in leafage.
glosses: Ergotized rye or other grain.
glosses: A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.
topics: business
manufacturing
shipbuilding
glosses: A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.
topics: business
manufacturing
shipbuilding
glosses: A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.
topics: business
mining
glosses: A branch of a vein.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: A very short branch line of a railway line.
topics: transport
glosses: A short branch road of a motorway, freeway or major road.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: A short thin side shoot from a branch, especially one that bears fruit or, in conifers, the shoots that bear the leaves.
Derived terms: bone spur
great spur wheel
knight's spur
Prince of Wales spur
spur cell
spurdog
spur gear
spur gearing
spur-heeled
spur-leather
spur leather
spur of the moment
spur-of-the-moment
spur road
spur-royal
spur-shell
spur-throated grasshopper
spur-throated locust
spur valerian
spur-way
spur-wheel
spur-winged
spur-winged goose
spur-winged lapwing
spur-winged plover
under-spur-leather
whip and spur