Word definition: spring

Etimology


From Middle English springen, from Old English springan (“to spring, leap, bounce, sprout forth, emerge, spread out”), from Proto-West Germanic *springan, from Proto-Germanic *springaną (“to burst forth”), from Proto-Indo-European *spre(n)ǵʰ- (“to move, race, spring”), from *sper- (“to jerk, twitch, snap, shove”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian springe, West Frisian springe, Dutch springen, German Low German springen, German springen, Danish springe, Swedish springa, Norwegian springe, Faroese springa, Icelandic springa (“to burst, explode”). Other possible cognates include Lithuanian spreñgti (“to push (in)”), Old Church Slavonic прѧсти (pręsti, “to spin, to stretch”), Latin spargere (“to sprinkle, to scatter”), Ancient Greek σπέρχω (spérkhō, “to hasten”), Sanskrit स्पृहयति (spṛháyati, “to be eager”). Some newer senses derived from the noun.

verb


spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past sprang or sprung, past participle sprung)

(intransitive) To move or burst forth.

(transitive) To cause to spring (all senses).

(obsolete, of horses) To breed with, to impregnate.

(transitive, obsolete) To wetten, to moisten.

(intransitive, now usually with "apart" or "open") To burst into pieces, to explode, to shatter.

(obsolete, military) To go off.

(intransitive, nautical, usually perfective) To crack.

(Can we verify(+) this sense?) (transitive, figurative) To surprise by sudden or deft action.

To come upon and flush out.

(Australia, slang) To catch in an illegal act or compromising position.

(obsolete) To begin.

(obsolete, slang) To put bad money into circulation.

To tell, to share.

(transitive, slang, US) To free from imprisonment, especially by facilitating an illegal escape.

(intransitive, slang, rare) To be free of imprisonment, especially by illegal escape.

(transitive, architecture, of arches) To build, to form the initial curve of.

(intransitive, architecture, of arches, with "from") To extend, to curve.

(transitive, nautical) To turn a vessel using a spring attached to its anchor cable.

(transitive) To pay or spend a certain sum, to yield.

(obsolete, intransitive, slang) To raise an offered price.

(transitive, US, dialectal) Alternative form of sprain.

(transitive, US, dialectal) Alternative form of strain.

(intransitive, obsolete) To act as a spring: to strongly rebound.

(transitive, rare) To equip with springs, especially (of vehicles) to equip with a suspension.

(figurative, rare, obsolete) to inspire, to motivate.

(transitive, intransitive) To deform owing to excessive pressure, to become warped; to intentionally deform in order to position and then straighten in place.

(intransitive, UK, dialectal, chiefly of cows) To swell with milk or pregnancy.

(transitive, of rattles, archaic) To sound, to play.

(intransitive) To spend the springtime somewhere

(of animals) to find or get enough food during springtime.

Examples


...for swenge swat ædrum sprongforð under fexe.

...for the swing, the blood from his veins sprangforth under his hair.

...þe wound þat was springand with huge stremes of blude...

The boat sprang a leak and began to sink.

...so the man tooke his concubine, and brought her foorth vnto them, and they knew her, and abused her all the night vntil the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her goe.

Home I vvould go, / But that my Dores are hatefull to my eyes. / Fill'd and damm'd up vvith gaping Creditors, / VVatchfull as Fovvlers vvhen their Game vvill ſpring; […]

Who hath diuided a water-course for the ouerflowing of waters? or a way for the lightning of thunder,To cause it to raine on the earth, where no man is: on the wildernesse wherein there is no man?To satisfie the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herbe to spring forth.

Commerce! beneath whose poison-breathing shade / No solitary virtue dares to spring, […]

Dr. Sigmund Freud... says that everything you and I do springs from two motives: the sex urge and the desire to be great.

There was moisture in the ground, and from it sprang a million flowers, gold and blue and brown and red.

Foxglove sprang tall and purple among the trees.

Synonyms: arise, form, take shape

He hit the gas and the car sprang to life.

...into helle spring...

Ye kynge... sprange out of his chare and resseyuyd them worshipfully.

...the Mountain Stag, that springsFrom Height to Height, and bounds along the Plains,Nor has a Master to restrain his Course...

...out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.

Thus she advanced; her belly low, almost touching the surface of the ground—a great cat preparing to spring upon its prey.

Reporters sprang to the conclusion that the speech would make detailed new commitments...

Deer spring with their hind legs, using their front hooves to steady themselves.

Synonyms: bound, jump, leap

He sprang from peasant stock.

He sprang the trap.

They sprung another Mine... wherein was placed about sixtie Barrels of Powder.

On the 23d, the Besiegers sprung a Mine under the Salient Angle, upon the Right of the Haif Moon, which had the desired Success, the Enemy's Gallery on that Side, and the Mason-Work of the Counterscarp, being thereby demolished.

...[they] sought the fairest stoned horses to spring their mares...

On the 22nd the mines sprang, and took very good effect.

The whole contraption appears liable to spring apart at any moment.

The Edward sprang hir foremast.

To spring a plant, is to find any thing that has been concealed by another.

He figured that nobody would ever spring him, but he figured wrong.

North Korea loves to spring surprises. More unusual is for its US foe to play along.

Sorry to spring it on you like this but I've been offered another job.

His lieutenants hired a team of miners to help spring him.

Synonyms: free, let out, release, spring loose, jailbreak

If I was in jail I know you'd spring me

They sprung an arch over the lintel.

The arches spring from the front posts.

He wouldn't spring a nickel for a bag of peanuts.

Don't drive it in too hard, as it will ‘spring’ the plane-iron, and make it concave.

A piece of timber sometimes springs in seasoning.

He sprang in the slat.

“Gee, Dad, Nancy’s springing all right,” Ray said and paused in spontaneous pleasure.Stan Parker came, and together they looked at their swelling heifer.

I do not know how John and his mistress would have settled the fate of the thief, but just at this moment a policeman entered — for the cook had sprung the rattle, and had been screaming "Murder" and "Thieves."

True it is that, owing to the migratory propensities of our countrymen, every third man has wintered at Naples, springed at Vienna, summered in Switzerland, and autumned on the banks of the Lago Maggiore;

If Tad’s father and Tad had wintered, springed, summered, and autumned together for an hundred years instead of fifteen they could […]

They wintered in a warm place / And summered in a cold, / But where they springed and autumned / I never have been told.

She springed in London, summered in Stockholm, autumned at Vichy, and wintered at Monte Carlo.

In recent years his friend the fourth-quarter king summered, autumned, and springed in nearby Southern California, which was how they stayed so easily in touch.

Larry and Bill had planned to hold a white-linen “fancy” fund-raiser dinner in late June or early July, which would bring out the moneyed crowd who “summered” on the Island. If you summer or winter somewhere you are affluent, Larry knew.

Related words


synonyms

(come into being): see also Thesaurus:come into being

related terms

sprang

springwort

sprung

to-spring

unspring

Etimology


From Middle English spryng (“a wellspring, tide, branch, sunrise, kind of dance or blow, ulcer, snare, flock”); partly from Old English spring (“wellspring, ulcer”), from Proto-West Germanic *spring, from Proto-Germanic *springaz (“a wellspring, fount”); and partly from Old English spryng (“a jump”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprungi, from Proto-Germanic *sprungiz (“a jump”). Further senses derived from the verb and from clippings of day-spring, springtime, spring tide, etc. Its sense as the season, first attested in a work predating 1325, gradually replaced Middle English lente, lentin, from Old English lencten (“spring, Lent”) as that word became more specifically liturgical. Compare fall.

noun


spring (countable and uncountable, plural springs)

(countable) An act of springing: a leap, a jump.

(countable) The season of the year in temperate regions in which plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life.

(uncountable, figurative) The time of something's growth; the early stages of some process.

(countable, fashion) Someone with ivory or peach skin tone and eyes and hair that are not extremely dark, seen as best suited to certain colors of clothing.

(countable) Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly

(countable, slang) An erection of the penis. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

(countable, nautical, obsolete) A crack which has sprung up in a mast, spar, or (rare) a plank or seam.

(uncountable) Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back, particularly

(countable) The source from which an action or supply of something springs.

(countable) Something which causes others or another to spring forth or spring into action, particularly

Examples


The pris'ner with a spring from prison broke;Then stretch'd his feather'd fans with all his might,And to the neighb'ring maple wing'd his flight.

Synonym: springtime

Coordinate terms: summer, autumn or fall, winter

Spring is the time of the year most species reproduce.

You can visit me in the spring, when the weather is bearable.

No joy the blowing season gives,⁠The herald melodies of spring,⁠But in the songs I love to singA doubtful gleam of solace lives.

Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.

Chinese New Year always occurs in January or February but is called the "Spring Festival" throughout East Asia because it is reckoned as the beginning of their spring.

I spent my spring holidays in Morocco.

The spring issue will be out next week.

...and it came to passe about the spring of the day, that Samuel called Saul to the top of the house...

O how this spring of love resemblethThe uncertain glory of an April day.

Arab Spring

Prague Spring

This beer was brewed with pure spring water.

Synonyms: fount, source

Antonym: neap tide

We jumped so hard the bed springs broke.

Synonym: coil

He had warped round with the springs on his cable, and had recommenced his fire upon the Aurora.

You should put a couple of springs onto the jetty to stop the boat moving so much.

Spring is likewise a rope reaching diagonally from the stern of a ship to the head of another which lies along-side or a-breast of her.

‘Springs’ are the ropes used on a ship that is alongside a berth to prevent fore and aft movements.

A spar is said to be sprung, when it is cracked or split,... and the crack is called a spring.

the spring of a bow

Synonyms: bounce, bounciness, elasticity, resilience, springiness

Heav'ns what a spring was in his Arm, to throw:How high he held his Shield, and rose at ev'ry blow!

Mrs Durbeyfield, excited by her song, trod the rocker with all the spring that was left in her after a long day's seething in the suds.

As wel the singers as the players on instruments shall bee there: all my springs are in thee.

Such a man can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth him, he can patiently suffer all things with cheerfull submission and resignation to the Divine Will. He has a secret Spring of spiritual Joy, and the continual Feast of a good Conscience within, that forbid him to be miserable.

[…] discover, at least in some degree, the secret springs and principles, by which the human mind is actuated in its operations?

‘Have you ever contemplated, Adrian, the phenomenon of springs?’‘Coils, you mean?’‘Not coils, Adrian, no. Coils not. Think springs of water. Think wells and spas and sources. Well-springs in the widest and loveliest sense. Jerusalem, for instance, is a spring of religiosity. One small town in the desert, but the source of the world’s three most powerful faiths... Religion seems to bubble from its sands.’

Synonyms: impetus, impulse

Our Author ſhuns by vulgar Springs to move / The Hero's Glory, or the Virgin's Love; […]

Related words


synonyms

(time of growth, early stages): See Thesaurus:beginning

related terms

aspring

atspring

bespring

espringal

Rumspringa

springal, springald

springboc, springbock, springbok

springe

spring-haas, springhaas

springhalt

springle

Data provided by Wiktionary