Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Spring

Spring

(sprĭng)
,
Verb.
I.
[
imp.
Sprang
(sprăng)
or
Sprung
(sprŭng)
;
p. p.
Sprung
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Springing
.]
[AS.
springan
; akin to D. & G.
springen
, OS. & OHG.
springan
, Icel. & Sw.
springa
, Dan.
springe
; cf. Gr.
σπέρχεσθαι
to hasten. Cf.
Springe
,
Sprinkle
.]
1.
To leap; to bound; to jump.
The mountain stag that
springs

From height to height, and bounds along the plains.
Philips.
2.
To issue with speed and violence; to move with activity; to dart; to shoot.
And sudden light
Sprung
through the vaulted roof.
Dryden.
3.
To start or rise suddenly, as from a covert.
Watchful as fowlers when their game will
spring
.
Otway.
4.
To fly back;
as, a bow, when bent,
springs
back by its elastic power
.
5.
To bend from a straight direction or plane surface; to become warped;
as, a piece of timber, or a plank, sometimes
springs
in seasoning
.
6.
To shoot up, out, or forth; to come to the light; to begin to appear; to emerge; as a plant from its seed, as streams from their source, and the like; – often followed by
up
,
forth
, or
out
.
Till well nigh the day began to
spring
.
Chaucer.
To satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb to
spring
forth.
Job xxxviii. 27.
Do not blast my
springing
hopes.
Rowe.
O,
spring
to light; auspicious Babe, be born.
Pope.
7.
To issue or proceed, as from a parent or ancestor; to result, as from a cause, motive, reason, or principle.
[They found] new hope to
spring

Out of despair, joy, but with fear yet linked.
Milton.
8.
To grow; to thrive; to prosper.
What makes all this, but Jupiter the king,
At whose command we perish, and we
spring
?
Dryden.
To spring at
,
to leap toward; to attempt to reach by a leap.
–
To spring forth
,
to leap out; to rush out.
–
To spring in
,
to rush in; to enter with a leap or in haste.
–
To spring on
or
To spring upon
,
to leap on; to rush on with haste or violence; to assault.

Spring

(sprĭng)
,
Verb.
T.
1.
To cause to spring up; to start or rouse, as game; to cause to rise from the earth, or from a covert;
as, to
spring
a pheasant
.
2.
To produce or disclose suddenly or unexpectedly;
as, to
spring
a surprise on someone; to
spring
a joke
.
She starts, and leaves her bed, and
springs
a light.
Dryden.
The friends to the cause
sprang
a new project.
Swift.
3.
To cause to explode;
as, to
spring
a mine
.
4.
To crack or split; to bend or strain so as to weaken;
as, to
spring
a mast or a yard
.
5.
To cause to close suddenly, as the parts of a trap operated by a spring;
as, to
spring
a trap
.
6.
To bend by force, as something stiff or strong; to force or put by bending, as a beam into its sockets, and allowing it to straighten when in place; – often with in, out, etc.;
as, to
spring
in a slat or a bar
.
7.
To pass over by leaping;
as, to
spring
a fence
.
To spring a butt
(Naut.)
,
to loosen the end of a plank in a ship’s bottom.
–
To spring a leak
(Naut.)
,
to begin to leak.
–
To spring an arch
(Arch.)
,
to build an arch; – a common term among masons;
as,
to spring an arch
over a lintel
.
–
To spring a rattle
,
to cause a rattle to sound. See
Watchman's rattle
, under
Watchman
.
–
To spring the luff
(Naut.)
,
to ease the helm, and sail nearer to the wind than before; – said of a vessel.
Mar. Dict.
–
To spring a mast
or
To spring a spar
(Naut.)
,
to strain it so that it is unserviceable.

Spring

,
Noun.
[AS.
spring
a fountain, a leap. See
Spring
,
Verb.
I.
]
1.
A leap; a bound; a jump.
The prisoner, with a
spring
, from prison broke.
Dryden.
2.
A flying back; the resilience of a body recovering its former state by its elasticity;
as, the
spring
of a bow
.
3.
Elastic power or force.
Heavens! what a
spring
was in his arm!
Dryden.
4.
An elastic body of any kind, as steel, India rubber, tough wood, or compressed air, used for various mechanical purposes, as receiving and imparting power, diminishing concussion, regulating motion, measuring weight or other force.
☞ The principal varieties of springs used in mechanisms are the
spiral spring
(Fig. a), the
coil spring
(Fig. b), the
elliptic spring
(Fig. c), the
half-elliptic spring
(Fig. d), the
volute spring
, the
India-rubber spring
, the
atmospheric spring
, etc.
5.
Any source of supply; especially, the source from which a stream proceeds; an issue of water from the earth; a natural fountain.
“All my springs are in thee.”
Ps. lxxxvii. 7.
“A secret spring of spiritual joy.”
Bentley.
“The sacred spring whence right and honor streams.”
Sir J. Davies.
6.
Any active power; that by which action, or motion, is produced or propagated; cause; origin; motive.
Our author shuns by vulgar
springs
to move
The hero's glory, or the virgin's love.
Pope.
7.
That which springs, or is originated, from a source;
as:
(a)
A race; lineage.
[Obs.]
Chapman.
(b)
A youth; a springal.
[Obs.]
Spenser.
(c)
A shoot; a plant; a young tree; also, a grove of trees; woodland.
[Obs.]
Spenser. Milton.
8.
That which causes one to spring; specifically, a lively tune.
[Obs.]
Beau. & Fl.
9.
The season of the year when plants begin to vegetate and grow; the vernal season, usually comprehending the months of March, April, and May, in the middle latitudes north of the equator.
“The green lap of the new-come spring.”
Shak.
☞ Spring of the astronomical year begins with the vernal equinox, about March 21st, and ends with the summer solstice, about June 21st.
10.
The time of growth and progress; early portion; first stage;
as, the spring of life
.
“The spring of the day.”
1 Sam. ix. 26.
O how this
spring
of love resembleth
The uncertain glory of an April day.
Shakespeare
11.
(Naut.)
(a)
A crack or fissure in a mast or yard, running obliquely or transversely.
(b)
A line led from a vessel's quarter to her cable so that by tightening or slacking it she can be made to lie in any desired position; a line led diagonally from the bow or stern of a vessel to some point upon the wharf to which she is moored.
Air spring
,
Boiling spring
,
etc. See under
Air
,
Boiling
, etc.
–
Spring back
(Bookbinding)
,
a back with a curved piece of thin sheet iron or of stiff pasteboard fastened to the inside, the effect of which is to make the leaves of a book thus bound (as a ledger or other account or blank book) spring up and lie flat.
–
Spring balance
,
a contrivance for measuring weight or force by the elasticity of a spiral spring of steel.
–
Spring beam
,
a beam that supports the side of a paddle box. See
Paddle beam
, under
Paddle
,
Noun.
–
Spring beauty
.
(a)
(Bot.)
Any plant of the genus
Claytonia
, delicate herbs with somewhat fleshy leaves and pretty blossoms, appearing in springtime
.
(b)
(Zool.)
A small, elegant American butterfly (
Erora laeta
) which appears in spring. The hind wings of the male are brown, bordered with deep blue; those of the female are mostly blue.
–
Spring bed
,
a mattress, under bed, or bed bottom, in which springs, as of metal, are employed to give the required elasticity.
–
Spring beetle
(Zool.)
,
a snapping beetle; an elater.
–
Spring box
,
the box or barrel in a watch, or other piece of mechanism, in which the spring is contained.
–
Spring fly
(Zool.)
,
a caddice fly; – so called because it appears in the spring.
–
Spring grass
(Bot.)
,
vernal grass. See under
Vernal
.
–
Spring gun
,
a firearm discharged by a spring, when this is trodden upon or is otherwise moved.
–
Spring hook
(Locomotive Engines)
,
one of the hooks which fix the driving-wheel spring to the frame.
–
Spring latch
,
a latch that fastens with a spring.
–
Spring lock
,
a lock that fastens with a spring.
–
Spring mattress
,
a spring bed.
–
Spring of an arch
(Arch.)
See
Springing line of an arch
, under
Springing
.
–
Spring of pork
,
the lower part of a fore quarter, which is divided from the neck, and has the leg and foot without the shoulder.
[Obs.]
Nares.


Sir, pray hand the
spring of pork
to me.
Gayton.


–
Spring pin
(Locomotive Engines)
,
an iron rod fitted between the springs and the axle boxes, to sustain and regulate the pressure on the axles.
–
Spring rye
,
a kind of rye sown in the spring; – in distinction from winter rye, sown in autumn.
–
Spring stay
(Naut.)
,
a preventer stay, to assist the regular one.
R. H. Dana, Jr.
–
Spring tide
,
the tide which happens at, or soon after, the new and the full moon, and which rises higher than common tides.
See
Tide
. –
Spring wagon
,
a wagon in which springs are interposed between the body and the axles to form elastic supports.
–
Spring wheat
,
any kind of wheat sown in the spring; – in distinction from winter wheat, which is sown in autumn.

Webster 1828 Edition

Spring

SPRING

,
Verb.
I.
pret. sprung, [sprang, not wholly obsolete;] pp. sprung.
1.
To vegetate and rise out of the ground; to begin to appear; as vegetables.
To satisfy the desolate ground, and cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth. Job 38.
2.
To begin to grow.
The teeth of the young not sprung--
3.
To proceed, as from the seed or cause.
Much more good of sin shall spring.
4.
To arise; to appear; to begin to appear or exist.
When the day began to spring, they let her go. Judges 21
Do not blast my springing hopes.
5.
To break forth; to issue into sight or notice.
O spring to light; auspicious babe, be born.
6.
To issue or proceed, as from ancestors or from a country. Aaron and Moses sprung from Levi.
7.
To proceed, as from a cause, reason, principle, or other original. The noblest title springs from virtue.
They found new hope to spring out of despair.
8.
To grow; to thrive.
What makes all this but Jupiter the king, at whose command we perish and we spring.
9.
To proceed or issue, as from a fountain or source. Water springs from reservoirs in the earth. Rivers spring from lakes or ponds.
10.
To leap; to bound; to jump.
The mountain stag that springs from highth to highth, and bounds along the plains--
11.
To fly back; to start; as, a bow when bent, springs back by its elastic power.
12.
To start or rise suddenly from a covert.
Watchful as fowlers when their game will spring.
13.
To shoot; to issue with speed and violence.
And sudden light sprung through the vaulted roof--
14.
To bend or wind from a straight direction or plane surface. Our mechanics say, a piece of timber or a plank springs in seasoning.
To spring at, to leap towards; to attempt to reach by a leap.
To spring in, to rush in; to enter with a leap or in haste.
To spring forth, to leap out; to rush out.
To spring on or upon, to leap on; to rush on with haste or violence; to assault.

SPRING

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To start or rouse, as game; to cause to rise from the earth or from a covert; as, to spring a pheasant.
2.
To produce quickly or unexpectedly.
The nurse, surprisd with fright, starts up and leaves her bed, and springs a light.
[I have never heard such an expression.]
3.
To start; to contrive or to produce or propose on a sudden; to produce unexpectedly.
The friends to the cause sprang a new project.
[In lieu of spring, the people int he United States generally use start; to start a new project.]
4.
To cause to explode; as, to spring a mine.
5.
To burst; to cause to open; as, to spring a leak. When it is said, a vessel has sprung a leak, the meaning is, the leak has then commenced.
6.
To crack; as, to spring a mast or a yard.
7.
To cause to close suddenly, as the parts of a trap; as, to spring a trap.
To spring a butt, in seamens language, to loosen the end of a plank in a ships bottom.
To spring the luff, when a vessel yields to the helm, and sails nearer to the wind than before.
To spring a fence, for to leap a fence, is not a phrase used in this country.
To spring an arch, to set off, begin or commence an arch from an abutment or pier.

SPRING

,
Noun.
1.
A leap; a bound; a jump; as of an animal.
The prisner with a spring from prison broke.
2.
A flying back; the resilience of a body recovering its former state by its elasticity; as the spring of a bow.
3.
Elastic power or force. The soul or the mind requires relaxation, that it may recover its natural spring.
Heavns, what a spring was in his arm.
4.
An elastic body; a body which, when bent or forced from its natural state, has the power of recovering it; as the spring of a watch or clock.
5.
Any active power; that by which action or motion is produced or propagated.
--Like nature letting down the springs of life.
Our author shuns by vulgar springs to move the heros glory--
6.
A fountain of water; an issue of water from the earth, or the basin of water at the place of its issue. Springs are temporary or perennial. From springs proceed rivulets, and rivulets united form rivers. Lakes and ponds are usually fed by springs.
7.
The place where water usually issues from the earth, though no water is there. Thus we say, a spring is dry.
8.
A source; that from which supplies are drawn. The real Christian has in his own breast a perpetual and inexhaustible spring of joy.
The sacred spring whence right and honor stream.
9.
Rise; original; as the spring of the day. 1 Samuel 9.
10.
Cause; original. The springs of great events are often concealed from common observation.
11.
The season of the year when plants begin to vegetate and rise; the vernal season. This season comprehends the months of March, April and May, in the middle latitudes north of the equator.
12.
In seamens language, a crack in a mast or yard, running obliquely or transversely. [In the sense of leak, I believe it is not used.]
13.
A rope passed out of a ships stern and attached to a cable proceeding from her bow, when she is at anchor. It is intended to bring her broadside to bear upon some object. A spring is also a rope extending diagonally from the stern of one ship to the head of another, to make on ship sheer off to a greater distance.
14.
A plant; a shoot; a young tree. [Not in use.]
15.
A youth. [Not in use.]
16.
A hand; a shoulder of pork. [Not in use.]

Definition 2024

Spring

Spring

See also: spring

English

Proper noun

Spring

  1. A surname​.
  2. Spring, the season of warmth and new vegetation following winter

Usage notes

  • The season is now more frequently written with a lower-case initial letter: "spring".

spring

spring

See also: Spring

English

Verb

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

  1. To jump or leap.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Philips, (Please provide the title of the work):
      The mountain stag that springs / From height to height, and bounds along the plains.
    • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:
      She was awakened by a shock, so sudden and severe that if Dorothy had not been lying on the soft bed she might have been hurt. As it was, the jar made her catch her breath and wonder what had happened; and Toto put his cold little nose into her face and whined dismally. Dorothy sat up and noticed that the house was not moving; nor was it dark, for the bright sunshine came in at the window, flooding the little room. She sprang from her bed and with Toto at her heels ran and opened the door.
    • 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 5, in Tarzan of the Apes:
      Not thirty paces behind the two she crouched—Sabor, the huge lioness—lashing her tail. Cautiously she moved a great padded paw forward, noiselessly placing it before she lifted the next. Thus she advanced; her belly low, almost touching the surface of the ground — a great cat preparing to spring upon its prey.
    • 1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Jacob's Room:
      Archer and Jacob jumped up from behind the mound where they had been crouching with the intention of springing upon their mother unexpectedly, and they all began to walk slowly home.
    He sprang up from his seat.‎
  2. To pass over by leaping.
    to spring over a fence‎ (in this sense, the verb spring must be accompanied by the preposition 'over'.)
  3. To produce or disclose unexpectedly, especially of surprises, traps, etc.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the title of the work):
      She starts, and leaves her bed, amd springs a light.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Jonathan Swift, (Please provide the title of the work):
      The friends to the cause sprang a new project.
    • 2012 February 29, Aidan Foster-Carter, “North Korea: The denuclearisation dance resumes”, in BBC News:
      North Korea loves to spring surprises. More unusual is for its US foe to play along.
  4. (slang) To release or set free, especially from prison.
  5. To come into being, often quickly or sharply.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
      However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess:
      The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue.  […] .
    Trees are already springing up in the plantation.‎
  6. To start or rise suddenly, as from a covert.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Otway, (Please provide the title of the work):
      watchful as fowlers when their game will spring
  7. To cause to spring up; to start or rouse, as game; to cause to rise from the earth, or from a covert.
    to spring a pheasant‎
  8. (nautical) To crack or split; to bend or strain so as to weaken.
    to spring a mast or a yard‎
  9. To bend by force, as something stiff or strong; to force or put by bending, as a beam into its sockets, and allowing it to straighten when in place; often with in, out, etc.
    to spring in a slat or a bar‎
  10. To issue with speed and violence; to move with activity; to dart; to shoot.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the title of the work):
      And sudden light / Sprung through the vaulted roof.
  11. To fly back.
    A bow, when bent, springs back by its elastic power.‎
  12. (intransitive) To bend from a straight direction or plane surface; to become warped.
    A piece of timber, or a plank, sometimes springs in seasoning.‎
  13. To shoot up, out, or forth; to come to the light; to begin to appear; to emerge, like a plant from its seed, a stream from its source, etc.; often followed by up, forth, or out.
    • Bible, Job xxxviii. 27
      to satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth
    • (Can we date this quote?), Rowe, (Please provide the title of the work):
      Do not blast my springing hopes.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Alexander Pope, (Please provide the title of the work):
      O, spring to light; auspicious Babe, be born.
  14. To issue or proceed, as from a parent or ancestor; to result, as from a cause, motive, reason, or principle.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Milton, (Please provide the title of the work):
      [They found] new hope to spring / Out of despair, joy, but with fear yet linked.
  15. (obsolete) To grow; to prosper.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the title of the work):
      What makes all this, but Jupiter the king, / At whose command we perish, and we spring?
  16. (architecture, masonry, transitive) To build (an arch).
    They sprung an arch over the lintel.‎
  17. (transitive, archaic) To sound (a rattle, such as a watchman's rattle).
    • 1850, Samuel Prout Newcombe, Pleasant pages, page 197:
      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."

Usage notes

  • The past-tense forms sprang and sprung are both well attested historically. In modern usage, sprang is comparatively formal (and more often considered correct), sprung comparatively informal. The past participle, however, is overwhelmingly sprung; sprang as a past participle is attested, but is no longer in standard use.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

Spring (season) in Germany
A coil spring (mechanical device)

spring ‎(countable and uncountable, plural springs)

  1. A leap; a bound; a jump.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the title of the work):
      The prisoner, with a spring, from prison broke.
  2. (countable) Traditionally the first of the four seasons of the year in temperate regions, in which plants spring from the ground and trees come into blossom, following winter and preceding summer.
    Spring is the time of the year most species reproduce.‎
    I spent my spring holidays in Morocco.‎
    You can visit me in the spring, when the weather is bearable.‎
  3. (countable) Meteorologically, the months of March, April and May in the northern hemisphere or September, October and November in the southern.
    • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 172:
      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.
  4. (countable) The astronomically delineated period from the moment of vernal equinox, approximately March 21 in the northern hemisphere to the moment of the summer solstice, approximately June 21. (See Spring (season) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia for other variations.)
  5. (countable) Spring tide; a tide of greater-than-average range, that is, around the first or third quarter of a lunar month, or around the times of the new or full moon.
  6. (countable) A place where water emerges from the ground.
    This water is bottled from the spring of the river.‎
  7. (uncountable) The property of a body of springing to its original form after being compressed, stretched, etc.
    the spring of a bow‎
  8. Elastic power or force.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the title of the work):
      Heavens! what a spring was in his arm!
  9. (countable) A mechanical device made of flexible or coiled material that exerts force when it is bent, compressed or stretched.
    We jumped so hard the bed springs broke.‎
  10. (countable, slang) An erection of the ****.
  11. (countable) The source of an action or of a supply.
    • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 9.:
      […] discover, at least in some degree, the secret springs and principles, by which the human mind is actuated in its operations?
    • Bible, Psalms lxxxvii
      All my springs are in thee.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Bentley, (Please provide the title of the work):
      A secret spring of spiritual joy.
  12. Any active power; that by which action, or motion, is produced or propagated; cause; origin; motive.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Alexander Pope, (Please provide the title of the work):
      Our author shuns by vulgar springs to move / The hero's glory, or the virgin's love.
  13. That which springs, or is originated, from a source.
    1. A race; lineage.
      (Can we find and add a quotation of Chapman to this entry?)
    2. A youth; a springald.
      (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
    3. A shoot; a plant; a young tree; also, a grove of trees; woodland.
      (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
      (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)
  14. (obsolete) That which causes one to spring; specifically, a lively tune.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Beaumont and Fletcher to this entry?)
  15. The time of growth and progress; early portion; first stage.
    • Bible, 1 Sam. ix. 26
      The spring of the day.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Shakespeare, (Please provide the title of the work):
      O how this spring of love resembleth / The uncertain glory of an April day.
  16. (countable, nautical) A rope attaching the bow of a vessel to the stern-side of the jetty, or vice versa, to stop the vessel from surging.
    You should put a couple of springs onto the jetty to stop the boat moving so much.‎
  17. (nautical) A line led from a vessel's quarter to her cable so that by tightening or slacking it she can be made to lie in any desired position; a line led diagonally from the bow or stern of a vessel to some point upon the wharf to which she is moored.
  18. (nautical) A crack or fissure in a mast or yard, running obliquely or transversely.

Usage notes

  • Note that season names are usually spelled in all lowercase letters in English. This is contrast to the days of the week and months of the year, which are always spelled with a capitalized first letter, for example Thursday or September.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

property of a body of springing to its original form

See also

Seasons in English · seasons (layout · text)
spring summer fall, autumn winter

References

  1. 1 2 “spring” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: wood · matters · physical · #895: spring · troops · meeting · corner

Danish

Etymology

Verbal noun to springe.

Noun

spring n (singular definite springet, plural indefinite spring)

  1. spring, jump, vault, leap

Declension

Related terms

Verb

spring

  1. imperative of springe

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sprɪŋ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋ

Verb

spring

  1. first-person singular present indicative of springen
  2. imperative of springen

German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʃpʀɪŋ/

Verb

spring

  1. Imperative singular of springen.
  2. (colloquial) First-person singular present of springen.

Icelandic

Verb

spring

  1. first-person singular present indicative of springa
  2. second-person singular imperative of springa

Scots

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [sprɪŋ]

Noun

spring ‎(plural springs)

  1. spring, springtime
  2. growth of vegetation in springtime

Verb

tae spring ‎(third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springin, simple past sprang, past participle sprung)

  1. to spring
  2. to leap over, cross at a bound
  3. to put forth, send up or out
  4. to burst, split, break apart, break into
  5. to dance a reel

Swedish

Noun

spring n

  1. a running (back and forth)
    • 1918, Goss-skolan i Plumfield, the Swedish translation of Louisa M. Alcott, Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys (1871)
      Eftermiddagen tillbragtes med att ordna sakerna, och när springet och släpet och hamrandet var förbi, inbjödos damerna att beskåda anstalten.
      The afternoon was spent in arranging things, and when the running and lugging and hammering was over, the ladies were invited to behold the institution.

Declension

Verb

spring

  1. imperative of springa.

Etymology

From Middle English springen, from Old English springan, from Proto-Germanic *springaną (compare West Frisian springe, Dutch/Low German/German springen, Danish springe, Swedish springa), from Proto-Indo-European *sperǵʰ- (compare Lithuanian spreñgti ‎(“to push in”), Old Church Slavonic прѧсти ‎(pręsti, “to spin, stretch”), Ancient Greek σπέρχω ‎(spérkhō, “I hasten”), Sanskrit स्पृहयति ‎(spṛhayati, “is eager”)).

Sense of ‘season’ 1547, from earlier springing time, spring-time, in sense of buds sprouting or “springing” up. This replaced Old English lencten (compare Lent) by the 14th century.[1]

Sense of ‘source of water’ attested circa 1225.[1]

Pronunciation

  • enPR: sprĭng, IPA(key): /spɹɪŋ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋ

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