spar

Meaning

Noun

1. A rafter of a roof.
2. A thick pole or piece of wood.
3. (obsolete) A bar of wood used to fasten a door.
4. Any linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff.
5. A beam-like structural member that supports ribs in an aircraft wing or other airfoil.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To bolt, bar.
2. To supply or equip (a vessel) with spars.

Verb

1. To fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat.
2. To strike with the feet or spurs, as cocks do.
3. To contest in words; to wrangle.

Synonyms

pole

bar

shaft

rod

staff

stake

mast

stave

sparring

box

📦

handle

argue

squabble

fight

stick

brabble

cane

boom

💥

baton

rafter

scrap

longeron

boxing

dispute

beam

jar

🫙

joist

main

pikestaff

practice

practise

prop

pugilism

quarrel

schist

scuffle

slate

sparry

spear

strife

stringer

struggle

support

tissue

tourney

tug

tussle

web

wrangle

yard

cock-fight

game fowl

prize fight

sparite

spring-halt

prise fight

spath

agent

derbyshire spar

balance beam

balk

bandy

barrier

bicker

boat hook

bout

boxing match

clash

club

cockfight

cockfighting

combat

contest

feud

fishing rod

fisticuff

gaff

game

gamecock

girder

haggle

heave

higgle

Pronounced as (IPA)

/spɑː/

Etymology

From Middle English sparre (“spar, rafter, beam”) (noun), sparren (“to close, bar”) (verb), from Middle Dutch sparre or Middle Low German Sparre, all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sparrô (“stake, beam”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)par- (“beam, log”). Compare Dutch spar (“balk”), German Sparren (“rafter, spar”), Danish sparre (“spar”), Albanian shparr, shpardh (“kind of oak”). Perhaps also compare spear.