spear
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: government
hobbies
ice-hockey
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
skating
sports
war
wrestling
Etymology: From Middle English spere, sperre, spear, from Old English spere, from Proto-West Germanic *speru, from Proto-Germanic *speru, from Proto-Indo-European *sperH-.
Cognates
See also West Frisian spear, Dutch speer, German Speer, Old Norse spjǫr, *sparrô, Middle Dutch sparre (“rafter”), Old Norse sparri (“spar, rafter”), sperra (“rafter, beam”); also Latin sparus (“short spear”), Albanian ferrë (“thorn, thornbush”).
Inflected forms:
form: spears
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: spears
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: spearing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: speared
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: speared
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.
pos: noun
examples: It's not like you killed someone
It's not like you drove a spiteful spear into his side
Talk to Jesus Christ as if he knows the reasons why
He did it all for you
gloss: A soldier armed with such a weapon; a spearman.
pos: noun
tags: historical
examples: Now toil'd the Bruce, the battle done ,
To use his conquest boldly won;
And gave command for horse and spear
To press the Southron's scatter'd rear
Two of the four spears came directly from Lady Margaret's staff. One was her great-nephew Maurice St John […].
gloss: A lance with barbed prongs, used by fishermen to retrieve fish.
pos: noun
gloss: An illegal maneuver using the end of a hockey stick to strike into another hockey player.
pos: noun
gloss: In professional wrestling, a running tackle in which the wrestler's shoulder is driven into the opponent's midsection.
pos: noun
gloss: A shoot, as of grass; a spire.
pos: noun
gloss: The feather of a horse.
pos: noun
gloss: The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.
pos: noun
gloss: A long, thin strip from a vegetable.
pos: noun
examples: asparagus and broccoli spears
gloss: To pierce with a spear.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: By the 1970s, herders were spearing rhinos and poisoning lions to protest the loss of their land to conservation, then represented by the independent Kenyan government.
gloss: To penetrate or strike with, or as if with, any long narrow object; to make a thrusting motion that catches an object on the tip of a long device.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
transitive
examples: Former teammate Derek Sanderson recalls that Maki hit Ted from behind as Green was clearing the puck from the Boston zone. Green turned to knock Maki down, but Maki speared him as he rose from the ice.
gloss: To tackle an opponent by ramming into them with one's helmet.
pos: verb
gloss: To shoot into a long stem, as some plants do.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: you may prepare them for spearing by laying the Keys in Earth or Sand
gloss: To ignore as a social snub.
pos: verb
tags: especially
obsolete
transitive
examples: The Monthly Magazine, Or, British Register for 1798 included an explanation by a reader of how the cut was carried out in his college days in a lengthy letter to the editor, signed by the pseudonym "Ansonius." In his rambling letter, Ansonius noted that when he was at college, " … if a man passed an old acquaintance wittingly, without recognizing him, he was said— ‘To cut him.’" Ansonius then went on to explain the performance of the cut and noted that for a time the term "to spear" was used instead of to cut. However, that term did not remain long in use, and this act was generally known as "the cut" ever after.
gloss: Male.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: a spear counterpart
When I was young, I was so desperate I'd go looking on the spear side.
gloss: Pertaining to male family members.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: the spear side of the family
Antonyms: distaff
Related words: assegai
assagai
assagaie
assagay
assegay
azagaia
hassagay
hassaguay
zagaie
zagaye
atlatl
bayonet
harpoon
javelin
joust
lance
pike
spit
woomera
Derived words: bear spear
boar-spear
eelspear
fire spear
fishspear
Ithuriel's spear
king's spear
ox tongue spear
polespear
riding spear
spearable
spear biscuits
spearbush
spear-carrier
spear carrier
spearcast
spearcaster
spear catcher
spear chucker
spearchucker
spear-chucker
spear closet
spearer
spearfish
spearfisher
spearfisherman
spearfisherwoman
spearfishing
spear foot
spear grass
speargrass
speargun
spear gun
spearhead
spearless
spearlet
spearlike
spear lily
spearmaker
spearmaking
Spearman
spearo
spear-penny
spear penny
spearphisher
spear phishing
spearphishing
spearplay
spearpoint
spearproof
spear-rib
spearshaft
spearsman
spearsmith
spear tackle
spear thistle
spearthrower
speartip
spearwoman
spearwood
spearwork
spearwort
speary
tip of the spear
unspear
upspear
spearmint
spear side
Translations: