noun
- any of various pointed devices worn on the heel by the rider of a horse and used to urge the horse forward
- anything that urges, impels, or incites; stimulus to action
- something like a spur; specif.,
- a spinelike process, as on the wings or legs of certain birds
- a spinelike outgrowth of bone, as on the human heel, resulting from injury, disease, etc.
- a climbing iron, as used by lumberjacks
- a sharp metal device attached as a weapon to the leg of a gamecock in a cockfight
- a short, stunted, or projecting branch or shoot of a tree, etc.
- a range or ridge projecting in a lateral direction from the main mass of a mountain or mountain range
- griffe
- a buttress, as of masonry, or any similar structure
- a short wooden reinforcing piece; brace; strut
- spur track
- Bot. a slender, tubelike structure formed by a basal extension of one or more petals or sepals, often serving as a nectar receptacle; calcar
Origin:
ME spure < OE spura, akin to Ger sporn < IE base *sp(h)er-, to jerk, push with the foot > spurn, Sans sphurāti, (he) kicks away, L spernere, lit., to push away
transitive verb spurred, spurring
- to strike or prick with a spur or spurs
- to urge, incite, or stimulate to action, greater effort, etc.
- to provide with a spur or spurs
- to strike or injure as with a spur (sense )