spear
See also: Spear
English
Etymology
From Middle English spere, sperre, spear, from Old English spere, from Proto-Germanic *speru (compare West Frisian spear, Dutch speer, German Speer, Old Norse spjǫr), related to *sparrô (compare Middle Dutch sparre (“rafter”), Old Norse sparri (“spar, rafter”), sperra (“rafter, beam”)), from Proto-Indo-European *sperH- (compare Latin sparus (“short spear”), Albanian ferrë (“thorn, thornbush”)). See park.
Pronunciation
Noun
spear (plural spears)
- A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.
- (now chiefly historical) A soldier armed with such a weapon; a spearman.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Scott to this entry?)
- 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 187:
- Two of the four spears came directly from Lady Margaret's staff. One was her great-nephew Maurice St John […].
- A lance with barbed prongs, used by fishermen to retrieve fish.
- (ice hockey) An illegal maneuver using the end of a hockey stick to strike into another hockey player.
- (wrestling) In professional wrestling, a running tackle in which the wrestler's shoulder is driven into the opponent's midsection.
- A shoot, as of grass; a spire.
- The feather of a horse.
- The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.
- A long, thin strip from a vegetable.
- asparagus and broccoli spears
Derived terms
- spearbush
- spearcaster
- spear gun
- spearhead
- spearmint
- spear tackle
- spear thrower
- spearwood
Translations
long stick with a sharp tip
|
|
sharp tool used by fishermen to retrieve fish
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
|
See also
Verb
spear (third-person singular simple present spears, present participle spearing, simple past and past participle speared)
- 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.
- (intransitive) To shoot into a long stem, as some plants do.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Mortimer to this entry?)
Translations
Adjective
spear (comparative more spear, superlative most spear)
- Male
- a spear counterpart
- 2019 episode 1 A Very English Scandal
- When I was young, I was so desperate I'd go looking on the spear side.
- Pertaining to male family members
- the spear side of the family
Antonyms
West Frisian
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.