spring
verbnounverbcommon in dialogue
- United States//ˈspɹɪŋ//
- United States/[ˈspɹʷɪŋ]/
To move or burst forth.
verb
- 1
To move or burst forth.
The boat sprang a leak and began to sink.
...þe wound þat was springand with huge stremes of blude...
- 2
To move or burst forth. To appear.
...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 would go, But that my Dores are hatefull to my eyes. Fill'd and damm'd up with gaping Creditors, Watchfull as Fowlers when their Game will ſpring; […]
- 3
To move or burst forth. To grow, to sprout.
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.
- 4
To move or burst forth. To grow, to sprout. To mature.
- 5
figurativeTo move or burst forth. To arise, to come into existence.
- 6
figurativeTo move or burst forth. To enliven.
He hit the gas and the car sprang to life.
- 7
figurativeTo move or burst forth. To move with great speed and energy.
Deer spring with their hind legs, using their front hooves to steady themselves.
...into helle spring...
Ye kynge... sprange out of his chare and resseyuyd them worshipfully.
...the Mountain Stag, that springs From Height to Height, and bounds along the Plains, Nor has a Master to restrain his Course...
- 8
To move or burst forth. To be born, descend, or originate from
He sprang from peasant stock.
From this basis, a first-order difference equation for the evolution of capital per worker is found, and the time path of the economy springs from this equation.
- 9
obsoleteTo move or burst forth. To rise in social position or military rank, to be promoted.
- 10
To cause to spring (all senses).
- 11
To cause to spring (all senses). To cause to work or open by sudden application of pressure.
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.
- 12
To leap over.
I sprang the fence, and was soon in the village street.
- 13
obsoleteTo breed with, to impregnate.
...[they] sought the fairest stoned horses to spring their mares...
- 14
obsoleteTo wet, to moisten.
- 15
To burst into pieces, to explode, to shatter.
On the 22nd the mines sprang, and took very good effect.
- 16
obsoleteTo go off.
The whole contraption appears liable to spring apart at any moment.
- 17
To crack.
The Edward sprang hir foremast.
- 18
To come upon and flush out.
For generations of men the springer spaniel has been looked upon as the dog for springing pheasants in covert and finding and retrieving dead birds or winged runners when ordered to do so. The properly broken dog will not chase, but drop to wing and shot.
[…] by the beginning of this century a still smaller breed, with a weight of 4 of 5 pounds and a chest measurement of around 12 inches, had come into being for springing rabbits. Such, then, is a rough, quick ancestral picture of our modern Dachshund, and[…]
I winter, ruffed grouse sometimes roost at night on the ground under the insulating snow. Even during the midday hours, I have often flushed grouse out from under the snow-bowed branches of "buck-brush," the type of environment where a hunter would more likely expect to spring a rabbit or two.
- 19
slangTo catch in an illegal act or compromising position.
He figured that nobody would ever spring him, but he figured wrong.
- 20
obsoleteTo begin.
- 21
obsoleteTo put bad money into circulation.
- 22
To tell, to share.
Sorry to spring it on you like this but I've been offered another job.
North Korea loves to spring surprises. More unusual is for its US foe to play along.
- 23
slangTo free from imprisonment, especially by facilitating an illegal escape.
His lieutenants hired a team of miners to help spring him.
If I was in jail I know you'd spring me
- 24
rareTo be free of imprisonment, especially by illegal escape.
- 25
To secure a person's release from custody; to free or bail out of jail.
The Big Man, of course, had had an alibi as solid as Fort Knox. He had been held and questioned, but was quickly sprung by the best lawyer in Harlem.
- 26
To build, to form the initial curve of.
They sprung an arch over the lintel.
- 27
To extend, to curve.
The arches spring from the front posts.
- 28
To turn a vessel using a spring attached to its anchor cable.
- 29
To pay or spend a certain sum, to yield.
He wouldn't spring a nickel for a bag of peanuts.
- 30
obsoleteTo raise an offered price.
- 31
obsoleteTo act as a spring: to strongly rebound.
- 32
rareTo equip with springs, especially (of vehicles) to equip with a suspension.
- 33
figurativeto inspire, to motivate.
- 34
To deform owing to excessive pressure, to become warped; to intentionally deform in order to position and then straighten in place.
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.
- 35
To swell with milk or pregnancy.
“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.
- 36
archaicTo sound, to play.
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."
- 37
To find or get enough food during springtime.
- 38
Variant of sprainAlternative form of sprain.
- 39
Variant of strainAlternative form of strain.
Etymology
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 *sperǵʰ- (“to hurry”). Cognates * 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.
noun
- 1
An act of springing: a leap, a jump.
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.
- 2
The season of the year in temperate regions in which temperatures and daylight hours rise, and plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life.
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 sing A doubtful gleam of solace lives.
Into the sea, you and me / All these years and no one heard / I'll show you in spring, it's a treacherous thing
- 3
The season of the year in temperate regions in which temperatures and daylight hours rise, and plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life. The period from the moment of vernal equinox (around March 21 in the Northern Hemisphere) to the moment of the summer solstice (around June 21); the equivalent periods reckoned in other cultures and calendars.
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.
- 4
The season of the year in temperate regions in which temperatures and daylight hours rise, and plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life. The three months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere.
I spent my spring holidays in Morocco.
The spring issue will be out next week.
- 5
figurativeThe time of something's growth; the early stages of some process.
...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 resembleth The uncertain glory of an April day.
- 6
figurativeThe time of something's growth; the early stages of some process. A period of political liberalization and democratization.
Arab Spring
Prague Spring
Solidarity grew from the Lenin Shipyard here and threatened a Polish spring before martial law was imposed in 1981.
- 7
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.
- 8
Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly A spray or body of water springing from the ground.
This beer was brewed with pure spring water.
- 9
obsoleteSomething which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly The rising of the sea at high tide.
- 10
Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly An elastic mechanical part or device in any shape (e.g., flat, curved, coiled), made of flexible material (usually spring steel) that exerts force and attempts to spring back when bent, compressed, or stretched.
We jumped so hard the bed springs broke.
- 11
Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly A line from a vessel's end or side to its anchor cable used to diminish or control its movement.
He had warped round with the springs on his cable, and had recommenced his fire upon the Aurora.
- 12
Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly A line laid out from a vessel's end to the opposite end of an adjacent vessel or mooring to diminish or control its movement.
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.
- 13
figurativeSomething which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly A race, a lineage.
- 14
figurativeSomething which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly A youth.
- 15
Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly A shoot, a young tree.
- 16
Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly A grove of trees; a forest.
- 17
Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly A group of teal.
It is sometimes the practice of the fowler to delay his performances a few days when there are only a small spring of teal; this delay frequently proves highly judicious, for when undisturbed they assemble at decoys in great numbers.
A peep over the bank, and a "spring" of teal are up, but only to divide into two, and I mark down the larger one into open water some hundred and fifty yards off.
Of all the prizes with which a wild-fowl shooter could wish to meet, a spring of Teal is amongst the first.
- 18
slangAn erection of the penis.
- 19
obsoleteA crack which has sprung up in a mast, spar, or (rare) a plank or seam.
A spar is said to be sprung, when it is cracked or split,... and the crack is called a spring.
- 20
Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back, particularly Elasticity: the property of a body springing back to its original form after compression, stretching, etc.
the spring of a bow
- 21
Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back, particularly Elastic energy, power, or force.
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.
- 22
The source from which an action or supply of something springs.
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?
- 23
Something which causes others or another to spring forth or spring into action, particularly A cause, a motive, etc.
Our Author ſhuns by vulgar Springs to move / The Hero's Glory, or the Virgin's Love; […]
- 24
obsoleteSomething which causes others or another to spring forth or spring into action, particularly A lively piece of music.
The firstand spring the fiddle did play Hey wi the gay and the grinding Said, "Ye'll drown my sister, as she's dune me." At the bony bony bows of London
- 25
Variant of spring tideSomething which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly Ellipsis of spring tide, the especially high tide shortly after full and new moons.
Etymology
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 lenten, lente, from Old English lencten (“spring, Lent”) as that word became more specifically liturgical. Compare fall.
verb
- 1
To spend the springtime somewhere.
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.
Forms
- plural
- springs
- past tense
- sprang, sprung, springed
- past participle
- sprung, springed
- present participle
- springing
- third person singular
- springs