Meaning of spur | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An occupational surname from Middle English
2. someone connected with Tottenham Hotspur FC, as a fan, player, coach etc.
3. 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.
4. A tern.
5. A spurious tone, one that interferes with a signal in a circuit and is often masked underneath that signal.
6. The track of an animal, such as an otter; a spoor.
7. A jab given with the spurs.
8. Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.
   figuratively
9. An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.
10. Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.
11. Roots, tree roots.
12. A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.
13. 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.
14. A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.
15. The short wooden buttress of a post.
16. 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.
17. Ergotized rye or other grain.
18. A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.
19. A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.
20. A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.
21. A branch of a vein.
22. A very short branch line of a railway line.
23. A short branch road of a motorway, freeway or major road.
24. A short thin side shoot from a branch, especially one that bears fruit or, in conifers, the shoots that bear the leaves.

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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, [...]”

“[…] the strong-bas'd promontory / Have I made shake; and by the spurs pluck'd up / The pine and cedar […]”

“I do note / That grief and patience, rooted in them both, / Mingle their spurs together.”

CEFR level