spur
Meaning
-
- 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.
- A jab given with the spurs.
- Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.
- An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.
- Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.
- Roots, tree roots.
- A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.
- 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.
- A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.
- The short wooden buttress of a post.
- 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.
- Ergotized rye or other grain.
- A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.
- A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.
- A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.
- A branch of a vein.
- A very short branch line of a railway line.
- A short branch road of a motorway, freeway or major road.
- A short thin side shoot from a branch, especially one that bears fruit or, in conifers, the shoots that bear the leaves.
Synonyms
spur track
tubular nectary
cock’s spur
ride fast
railroad siding
spur dike
offspur
wing dam
groin, groyne
creep path
tributary line
spurline
feeder line
Frequency
Pronounced as (IPA)
/spɜː/
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”).
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