speer

See also: Speer

English

Alternative forms

• speir, spere

Etymology 1

See sphere.

Noun

speer (plural speers)

1. (obsolete) sphere

Etymology 2

From Middle English spuren, from Old English spyrian, from Proto-Germanic *spurjaną. Cognate with German spüren, Swedish spörja.

Verb

speer (third-person singular simple present speers, present participle speering, simple past and past participle speered)

1. (Scotland) to ask, to inquire
   • 1778, Alexander Ross, Helenore: Or, The Fortunate Shepherdess, page 87:

     Afore lang days, I hope to see him here, / About his milkness and his cows to speer.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “speer”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• prees, peers, Reeps, spere, esper, Prees, Peres, pères, Perse, Spree, spree, Esper, Peers, per se, Serpe, perse

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch spēre, from Old Dutch *speru, from Proto-West Germanic *speru, from Proto-Germanic *speru.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

speer f (plural speren, diminutive speertje n)

1. spear
2. javelin

Synonyms

• (spear): spies, lans, geer

Meronyms

• schacht
• speerpunt

Derived terms

• speerpunt

Descendants

• → Papiamentu: sper

Middle English

Noun

speer

1. Alternative form of spere (“spear”)