spring
Contents
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
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 (spṛháyati, “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]
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past sprang or sprung, past participle sprung)
- To jump or leap.
- (Can we date this quote?), Philips, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- 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.
- To pass over by leaping.
- to spring over a fence(in this sense, the verb spring must be accompanied by the preposition 'over'.)
- To produce or disclose unexpectedly, especially of surprises, traps, etc.
- (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- She starts, and leaves her bed, and springs a light.
- (Can we date this quote?), Jonathan Swift, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- The friends to the cause sprang a new project.
- 2012 February 29, Aidan Foster-Carter, “North Korea: The denuclearisation dance resumes”, in BBC News[1]:
- North Korea loves to spring surprises. More unusual is for its US foe to play along.
- (slang) To release or set free, especially from prison.
- (Australia, slang) To suddenly catch someone doing something illegal or against the rules.
- 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[2]:
- 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.
- To start or rise suddenly, as from a covert.
- (Can we date this quote?), Otway, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- watchful as fowlers when their game will spring
- 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
- (nautical) To crack or split; to bend or strain so as to weaken.
- to spring a mast or a yard
- 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
- To issue with speed and violence; to move with activity; to dart; to shoot.
- (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- And sudden light / Sprung through the vaulted roof.
- To move suddenly when pressure is released.
- A bow, when bent, springs back by its elastic power.
- (intransitive) To bend from a straight direction or plane surface; to become warped.
- A piece of timber, or a plank, sometimes springs in seasoning.
- 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 book title or journal name):
- Do not blast my springing hopes.
- (Can we date this quote?), Alexander Pope, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- O, spring to light; auspicious Babe, be born.
- Bible, Job xxxviii. 27
- 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 book title or journal name):
- [They found] new hope to spring / Out of despair, joy, but with fear yet linked.
- (obsolete) To grow; to prosper.
- (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- What makes all this, but Jupiter the king, / At whose command we perish, and we spring?
- (architecture, masonry, transitive) To build (an arch).
- They sprung an arch over the lintel.
- (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 notesEdit
- 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.
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
NounEdit
spring (countable and uncountable, plural springs)
- A leap; a bound; a jump.
- (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- The prisoner, with a spring, from prison broke.
- (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.
- (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[3], 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.
- (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.)
- (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.
- (countable) A place where water or oil emerges from the ground.
- This water is bottled from the spring of the river.
- (uncountable) The property of a body of springing to its original form after being compressed, stretched, etc.
- the spring of a bow
- Elastic power or force.
- (Can we date this quote?), Dryden, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- Heavens! what a spring was in his arm!
- (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.
- (countable, slang) An erection of the penis.
- (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 book title or journal name):
- A secret spring of spiritual joy.
- 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 book title or journal name):
- Our author shuns by vulgar springs to move / The hero's glory, or the virgin's love.
- That which springs, or is originated, from a source.
- A race; lineage.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Chapman to this entry?)
- A youth; a springald.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
- 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?)
- A race; lineage.
- (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?)
- 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 book title or journal name):
- O how this spring of love resembleth / The uncertain glory of an April day.
- Bible, 1 Sam. ix. 26
- (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.
- (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.
- (nautical) A crack or fissure in a mast or yard, running obliquely or transversely.
Usage notesEdit
- 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.
SynonymsEdit
- (place where water emerges from the ground): fount, source
- (property of a body of springing to its original form): bounce, bounciness, elasticity, resilience, springiness
- (slang: erection of the penis): boner, chubby, hard-on, stiffy, woody; see also Thesaurus:erection
- (source of an action): impetus, impulse
AntonymsEdit
- (spring tide): neap tide
Derived termsEdit
- advance spring
- after-spring
- afterspring
- air spring
- air-spring
- Alice Springs
- anti-rattle spring
- Arlington Springs Man
- Arlington Springs Woman
- artesian spring
- austral spring
- autumn-spring
- auxiliary spring
- balance spring
- Barton Springs salamander
- bedspring
- Beijing Spring
- Belleville spring
- bending spring
- Berber Spring
- boiling spring
- border spring
- bow spring
- box spring, box-spring
- brine spring
- brush spring
- buckling spring
- Caballine spring
- Cambridge Springs defence, Cambridge Springs defense
- cantilever spring
- card spring
- Carrizo Springs
- cart spring
- cee spring, cee-spring, C spring, c-spring
- clock spring
- closed spring
- coiled spring sign
- coil spring
- coil spring clutch
- Coldspring
- ColdSpring
- Colorado Springs
- compression spring
- contact spring
- Croatian Spring
- cupped spring washer
- Damascus Spring
- damper spring
- day-spring, dayspring
- DeFuniak Springs
- detent ball and spring
- diaphragm spring
- door hold-open spring
- Double Springs
- draw-spring, drawspring
- driving spring
- extension spring
- extra spring
- farewell-to-spring
- finger spring
- flat spring
- float bumper spring
- footsteps-of-spring
- forespring
- forest-spring encephalitis
- garter spring
- gas spring
- Glenwood Springs
- graduated spring
- haemoglobin Constant Spring, hemoglobin Constant Spring
- hairspring
- hand-spring, handspring
- harbinger-of-spring
- headspring
- Heber Springs
- helical spring
- helper spring
- hot spring
- Hot Spring County
- Hot Springs
- Hot Springs County
- Hot Sulphur Springs
- hydrospring
- Indian spring low water
- innerspring
- inside spring caliper
- jagger spring
- Jesus spring
- Kesling spring
- laminated spring
- land-spring
- laspring
- latter spring
- leaf spring, leaf-spring
- Lehman Springs
- lifespring
- locating spring
- loop spring
- mainspring
- master-spring
- mean high water spring
- mean low water spring
- meshing spring
- mid-spring
- mineral spring
- motor spring
- natural spring
- negative spring
- offspring
- ofspring
- open spring
- Operation Spring Awakening
- Operation Spring Cleanup
- Operation Spring of Youth
- outside spring caliper
- outspring
- overload spring
- paddle spring
- Pagosa Springs
- parabolic spring
- Pierian Spring
- piston spring
- Prague Spring
- progressive rate spring
- progressive valve spring
- progressively wound valve spring
- rattle spring
- restoring spring
- retainer spring tool
- retro-spring
- return spring
- Rocksprings
- Russian spring-summer encephalitis
- saddle-spring
- salt spring
- sear spring
- sea-spring
- seepage spring
- semi-elliptic spring
- separating spring
- Sharon Springs
- shoe return spring
- single rate spring
- soda spring
- Soda Springs
- spiral spring
- splayed spring
- spreader spring
- spring-action
- Spring and Autumn Period
- spring azure
- spring back, spring-back
- Springbal
- spring balance
- Spring Bank Holiday
- spring bar
- spring-based
- spring baton
- spring beam, spring-beam
- spring beating
- spring beating spoon
- spring beauty, spring-beauty
- spring bed
- spring beetle, spring-beetle
- spring-bell
- spring-biased
- spring binder, spring-binder
- spring-binding
- spring-bladed
- spring bloom
- spring-board, springboard
- spring bolt
- spring booster
- spring bow
- spring bows
- spring box
- spring brake
- spring branch, spring-branch
- spring break
- spring bud
- spring cabbage
- spring cankerworm
- spring cap
- spring-carriage
- spring-cart
- spring catch
- spring channel binder
- spring chicken
- spring choke
- spring clamp
- spring-cleaning
- spring cleavers
- spring clip
- spring clutch
- spring collar
- spring collet
- spring compressor
- spring conjunctivitis
- spring constant
- spring cress
- spring crocus
- spring crust
- Spring Day
- spring disease
- spring divider
- spring drive
- spring dwindling
- springed
- spring ephemeral
- spring equation
- spring equinox
- springet
- spring eye
- Springfest
- spring festival
- spring fever
- spring finger
- springfish
- spring-flood
- spring fly
- spring force
- springform pan
- spring frog
- spring-froth
- springful
- spring garden
- spring gentian
- spring ginger
- spring grass, spring-grass
- spring green
- spring greens
- spring gun, spring-gun
- spring hanger
- spring hare, spring-hare, springhare
- spring-head, springhead
- spring-headed
- spring heath
- spring-heeled
- spring herring
- spring hock
- spring-hole
- Spring Holiday
- spring hook
- spring-house, springhouse
- spring in one's step
- springish
- spring isolator
- spring juices
- spring-keeper, springkeeper
- spring lamb
- spring lancet
- spring latch
- springle
- springless
- springlet
- spring ligament
- spring-like, springlike
- spring line, springline
- spring line settlement, springline settlement
- springling
- spring-loaded
- spring lock, spring-lock, springlock
- spring lock washer
- spring-locked
- spring mattress
- spring melt
- spring mix
- The Spring of Arda
- The Spring Offensive
- The Spring of Nations
- spring of pork
- spring of the leaf
- spring of the year
- spring onion
- spring ophthalmia
- spring overshoot
- spring overturn
- Spring Palace
- spring pasque flower
- spring peeper
- spring pin
- spring-pit
- spring planting
- spring plate
- spring-pottage
- spring rail
- spring rate
- spring-release
- spring ring clasp
- spring roll
- spring-run fish
- spring runoff
- spring rye
- spring sail
- spring salmon
- spring-salt
- spring scale
- spring scalecap
- spring seat
- spring shackle
- spring sludge
- spring snow
- spring soup
- springspotter
- spring squill
- spring stay
- spring steel
- spring suspension
- spring sweep
- spring tail, spring-tail, springtail
- spring tapping
- spring-teller
- spring temper
- spring thaw
- spring tide
- spring-tide, springtide
- spring time, spring-time, springtime
- spring-tooth
- spring training
- spring-tree
- Spring Triangle
- spring-type brake actuator
- spring usher
- spring vetch
- spring vetchling
- Springview
- spring wagon
- spring wagtail
- spring washer
- spring water, spring-water, springwater
- spring-well
- spring wheat
- spring windup
- spring wood, spring-wood, springwood
- springy
- Steamboat Springs
- steel spring
- sulfur spring, sulphur spring
- Sulphur Springs
- tensioning spring
- tension spring
- thermal spring
- thermostatic spring choke
- throttle return spring
- torsion spring
- trailing spring
- truss spring steel
- underspring
- Union Springs
- upholstery coil spring
- uprighting spring
- upspring
- valve spring
- valve spring cap
- valve spring collar
- valve spring compressor
- valve spring depressor
- valve spring lifter
- valve spring retainer
- valve spring seat
- variable rate spring
- variable spring
- vauclusian spring
- vintage spring
- volute spring
- V-spring
- wall spring
- warm spring
- Warm Springs
- watch main spring steel
- watch-spring
- water-spring
- wave spring
- weeping spring
- well-spring, wellspring
- Wessington Springs
- White Sulphur Springs
- zero-length spring
- Z spring
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
See alsoEdit
Seasons in English · seasons (layout · text) | |||
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spring | summer | fall, autumn | winter |
ReferencesEdit
DanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Verbal noun to springe.
NounEdit
spring n (singular definite springet, plural indefinite spring)
DeclensionEdit
neuter gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
nominative | spring | springet | spring | springene |
genitive | springs | springets | springs | springenes |
Related termsEdit
VerbEdit
spring
DutchEdit
GermanEdit
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
spring
- Imperative singular of springen.
- (colloquial) First-person singular present of springen.
IcelandicEdit
Middle EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old English spring, spryng.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
spring (plural springes)
DescendantsEdit
See alsoEdit
Seasons in Middle English · sesounes (layout · text) | |||
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lenten, spring | somer | hervest, autumpne | winter |
Norwegian NynorskEdit
ScotsEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
spring (plural springs)
- spring, springtime
- growth of vegetation in springtime
VerbEdit
tae spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springin, simple past sprang, past participle sprung)
- to spring
- to leap over, cross at a bound
- to put forth, send up or out
- to burst, split, break apart, break into
- to dance a reel
SwedishEdit
NounEdit
spring n
- 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.
- Eftermiddagen tillbragtes med att ordna sakerna, och när springet och släpet och hamrandet var förbi, inbjödos damerna att beskåda anstalten.
- 1918, Goss-skolan i Plumfield, the Swedish translation of Louisa M. Alcott, Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys (1871)
DeclensionEdit
Declension of spring | ||||
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Uncountable | ||||
Indefinite | Definite | |||
Nominative | spring | springet | — | — |
Genitive | springs | springets | — | — |
VerbEdit
spring
- imperative of springa.