spur

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.

• 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.

A jab given with the spurs.

• I had hardly said the word, when Kit jumped into the saddle, and gave his horse a whip and a spur — and off it cantered, as if it were in as great a hurry to be married as Kit himself.

Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.figuratively

• She is a theame of honour and renowne, / A ſpurre to valiant and magnanimous deeds, / Whoſe preſent courage may beate downe our foes, / And fame in time to come canonize us, [...]

An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.

Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.

Roots, tree roots.

• […] the strong-bas'd promontory / Have I made shake; and by the spurs pluck'd up / The pine and cedar […]
• I do note / That grief and patience, rooted in them both, / Mingle their spurs together.

A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.

• But a narrow spur of rocks arched out and over the hole, ending in an outcrop perhaps a hundred feet across.

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.

A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.

The short wooden buttress of a post.

To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.transitive

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

To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an objecttransitive

• My desire / (More sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth...
• But the latest Santa Fe development, while not spurring the Rock Island to any further acceleration, has drawn fire from a totally unexpected quarter.

To put spurs on.transitive

• to spur boots

To press forward; to travel in great haste.intransitive

To form a spur (senses 17-18 of the noun)

• It spurs off the Robin Hood line, providing ten miles of single-line test track with a three-mile double section, capable of testing up to 75mph.

A tern.

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

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

Alternative form of speer.alt-ofalternativedialectal

• I haue yonder vncouered a faire girle, Ile be ſo bolde as ſpurre her, vvhat might a bodie call her name?