spur

• (General American) IPA^(key): /spɝ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /spɜː/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)

From Middle English spure, spore, from Old English spura, spora, from Proto-Germanic *spurô, from Proto-Indo-European *sper-, *sperw- (“to twitch, push, fidget, be quick”).

spur (plural spurs)

1. 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.
   • 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene VI, line 4:

     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.

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 22:

     Two 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 considerable length, radiating from and revolving on a center, thence named the rouelle or wheel spur.

2. Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does to a horse.
   • 1601, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act II, Scene II, line 198.

     But, worthy Hector, She is a theme of honour and renown, A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds...

3. An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.
4. Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.
5. Roots, tree roots.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act IV, Scene II, line 57:

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

   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 5 scene 1

     [...] the strong-bas'd promontory

     Have I made shake; and by the spurs pluck'd up

     The pine and cedar […]

6. A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.
7. 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.
8. (carpentry) A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.
9. (architecture) The short wooden buttress of a post.
10. (architecture) 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.
11. Ergotized rye or other grain.
12. A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.
13. (shipbuilding) A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.
14. (shipbuilding) A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.
15. (mining) A branch of a vein.

• spur-leather
• spur-of-the-moment

• (rigid implement) rowel, pryck, prick

spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)

1. To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act V, Scene III, line 339:

     Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head! Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood; Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!

2. To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object

   Synonyms: incite, stimulate, instigate, impel, drive; see also Thesaurus:incite

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene IV, line 4.

     My desire / (More sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth...

   • 2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times‎:

     What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq.

3. To put spurs on

   to spur boots

• spur on

See sparrow.

spur (plural spurs)

1. A tern.

Short for spurious.

spur (plural spurs)

1. (electronics) A spurious tone, one that interferes with a signal in a circuit and is often masked underneath that signal.

spur (plural spurs)

1. The track of an animal, such as an otter; a spoor.

spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)

1. (obsolete, dialectal) Alternative form of speer.
   • 1594, John Lyly, "Mother Bombie", in Richard Warwick Bond, The Complete Works of John Lyly, Vol. III, Clarendon Press, 1902, page 213.

     Accius. I haue yonder vncouered a faire girle: Ile be so bolde as spurre her, what might a bodie call her name?

   • 1594, John Lyly, "Mother Bombie", in Richard Warwick Bond, The Complete Works of John Lyly, Vol. III, Clarendon Press, 1902, page 208.

     Dro[mio]. No, for I spurd him [a horse] till my heeles akt and hee sayd neuer a word.

   • 1625/1637, John Fletcher & Philip Massinger, "The Elder Brother", ed. by W.W. Greg, The works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Vol. II, page 77.

     And[rew]. Are you come, old master? very good: your horse / Is well set up; but, ere ye part, I'll ride you, / And spur your reverend justiceship such a question, / As I shall make the sides o' your reputation bleed; / Truly I will. Now must I play at bo-peep.

   • 1638, Thomas Heywood, "The Rape of Lucrece. A true Roman Tragedy", in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood, Vol. V, John Pearson, 1874, pages 230 & 231.

     Clo[wne]. Fie upon't, never was poore Pompey ſo overlabour'd as I have beene, I thinke I have ſpurd my horſe ſuch a queſtion, that he is ſcarce able to wig or wag his tayle for an anſwere, but my Lady bad me ſpare for no horſe fleſh, and I thinke I have made him runne his race.

   • The Pall Mall Magazine, Vol. 33, 1904, page 435.

     They hadde spurred questions all the morning, his Majestie being so grossly overtaken with two whole nights' feasting, (which meant a surfeit of sausage laid upon a stomach not over strong), that between sick and sullen he bore a dull edge to the business.

• purs, surp

spur

1. Alternative form of spore

• sparra
• spug
• spuggie
• speug

spur (plural spurs)

1. sparrow

• “spur” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.