Definition of "spring"

(intransitive) To move or burst forth.  quotations

1. To appear.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • ...so the man tooke his concubine, and brought her foorth vnto them, and they knew her, and abused her all the night vntil the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her goe.

     1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Judges 19:25

   • Home I vvould go, / But that my Dores are hatefull to my eyes. / Fill'd and damm'd up vvith gaping Creditors, / VVatchfull as Fovvlers vvhen their Game vvill ſpring; […]

     1682, Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, or, A Plot Discover’d. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], Act I, scene i, page 4

2. To grow, to sprout.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Who hath diuided a water-course for the ouerflowing of waters? or a way for the lightning of thunder,To cause it to raine on the earth, where no man is: on the wildernesse wherein there is no man?To satisfie the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herbe to spring forth.

     1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Job 38:25–27

   • Commerce! beneath whose poison-breathing shade / No solitary virtue dares to spring, [...]

     1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto V”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], page 61

   • Dr. Sigmund Freud... says that everything you and I do springs from two motives: the sex urge and the desire to be great.

     1936, Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People, page 42

   • There was moisture in the ground, and from it sprang a million flowers, gold and blue and brown and red.

     1974, James Albert Michener, Centennial, page 338

   • Foxglove sprang tall and purple among the trees.

     2006, N. Roberts, Morrigann's Cross, section VI

   1. (UK dialectal) To mature.  examples

3. (figurative) To arise, to come into existence.

   1. (figurative) To enliven, or figuratively so.  examples

4. (figurative, usually with cardinal adverbs) To move with great speed and energy.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • ...into helle spring...

     c. 1250, Life of St Margaret, Trin. Col. MS B.14.39 (323), f. 22v

   • Ye kynge... sprange out of his chare and resseyuyd them worshipfully.

     1474, William Caxton, transl., Game and Playe of the Chesse, iii, vii, 141

   • ...the Mountain Stag, that springsFrom Height to Height, and bounds along the Plains,Nor has a Master to restrain his Course...

     1722, Ambrose Philips, The Briton

   • ...out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

     1827, Clement Clarke Moore, (A Visit from St. Nicholas)

   • However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.

     1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

   • Thus she advanced; her belly low, almost touching the surface of the ground—a great cat preparing to spring upon its prey.

     1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 5, in Tarzan of the Apes

   • Reporters sprang to the conclusion that the speech would make detailed new commitments...

     2011 April 11, The Atlantic

5. (usually with from) To be born, descend, or originate from  examples

6. (obsolete) To rise in social position or military rank, to be promoted.

7. (obsolete, of knowledge, usually with wide) To become known, to spread.

(transitive) To cause to spring (all senses).

1. (figurative, of animals) To cause to move energetically; (equestrianism) to cause to gallop, to spur.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Each man springs his ramrod as the officer passes him, and then returns it.

     1833, Regulations for the Instruction... of the Cavalry, i, i, 29

2. (obsolete, of horses) To breed with, to impregnate.  quotations

   Quotations

   • ...[they] sought the fairest stoned horses to spring their mares...

     1585, Nicolas De Nicolay, translated by Thomas Washington, The Navigations, Peregrinations, and Voyages, Made into Turkie..., Bk. IV, p. 154

3. (of mechanisms) To cause to work or open by sudden application of pressure.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • They sprung another Mine... wherein was placed about sixtie Barrels of Powder.

     1625, Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, Vol. II, x, ix

   • On the 23d, the Besiegers sprung a Mine under the Salient Angle, upon the Right of the Haif Moon, which had the desired Success, the Enemy's Gallery on that Side, and the Mason-Work of the Counterscarp, being thereby demolished.

     1747, The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer

(transitive, obsolete) To wetten, to moisten.

(intransitive, now usually with "apart" or "open") To burst into pieces, to explode, to shatter.  quotations  examples

(obsolete, military) To go off.  quotations

(intransitive, nautical, usually perfective) To crack.  quotations  examples

(transitive, figurative) To surprise by sudden or deft action.  examples

To come upon and flush out.  quotations  examples

(Australia, slang) To catch in an illegal act or compromising position.  quotations

(obsolete) To begin.

(obsolete, slang) To put bad money into circulation.

To tell, to share.  quotations  examples

(transitive, slang, US) To free from imprisonment, especially by facilitating an illegal escape.  quotations

(intransitive, slang, rare) To be free of imprisonment, especially by illegal escape.

(transitive, architecture, of arches) To build, to form the initial curve of.  examples

(intransitive, architecture, of arches, with "from") To extend, to curve.  examples

(transitive, nautical) To turn a vessel using a spring attached to its anchor cable.  examples

(transitive) To pay or spend a certain sum, to yield.  quotations  examples

(obsolete, intransitive, slang) To raise an offered price.

(transitive, US, dialectal) Alternative form of sprain.  examples

(transitive, US, dialectal) Alternative form of strain.  examples

(intransitive, obsolete) To act as a spring: to strongly rebound.

(transitive, rare) To equip with springs, especially (of vehicles) to equip with a suspension.

(transitive, rare, obsolete) To provide spring or elasticity.

(figurative, rare, obsolete) to inspire, to motivate.

(transitive, intransitive) To deform owing to excessive pressure, to become warped; to intentionally deform in order to position and then straighten in place.  quotations  examples

(intransitive, UK, dialectal, chiefly of cows) To swell with milk or pregnancy.  quotations  examples

(transitive, of rattles, archaic) To sound, to play.  quotations

(of animals) to find or get enough food during springtime.  examples

(countable) An act of springing: a leap, a jump.  quotations  examples

(countable) The season of the year in temperate regions in which plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life.  quotations

1. (astronomy) The period from the moment of vernal equinox (around March 21 in the Northern Hemisphere) to the moment of the summer solstice (around June 21); the equivalent periods reckoned in other cultures and calendars.  examples

2. (meteorology) The three months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere.

(uncountable, figurative) The time of something's growth; the early stages of some process.  quotations

1. (figurative, politics) a period of political liberalization and democratization  examples

(countable, fashion) Someone with ivory or peach skin tone and eyes and hair that are not extremely dark, seen as best suited to certain colors of clothing.  examples

(countable) Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly

1. (geology) A spray or body of water springing from the ground.

2. (oceanography, obsolete) The rising of the sea at high tide.

3. (oceanography) Short for spring tide, the especially high tide shortly after full and new moons.  examples

4. A mechanical device made of flexible or coiled material that exerts force and attempts to spring back when bent, compressed, or stretched.  examples

5. (nautical) A line from a vessel's end or side to its anchor cable used to diminish or control its movement.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • He had warped round with the springs on his cable, and had recommenced his fire upon the Aurora.

     1836, Frederick Marryat, Mr. Midshipman Easy, volume III, page 72

6. (nautical) A line laid out from a vessel's end to the opposite end of an adjacent vessel or mooring to diminish or control its movement.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Spring is likewise a rope reaching diagonally from the stern of a ship to the head of another which lies along-side or a-breast of her.

     1769, William Falconer, An Universal Dictionary of the Marine, s.v

   • ‘Springs’ are the ropes used on a ship that is alongside a berth to prevent fore and aft movements.

     2007 January 26, Business Times:

7. (figurative) A race, a lineage.  examples

8. (figurative) A youth.  examples

9. A shoot, a young tree.  examples

10. A grove of trees; a forest.  examples

(countable, slang) An erection of the penis.

(countable, nautical, obsolete) A crack which has sprung up in a mast, spar, or (rare) a plank or seam.  quotations

(uncountable) Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back, particularly

1. Elasticity: the property of a body springing back to its original form after compression, stretching, etc.  examples

2. Elastic energy, power, or force.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Heav'ns what a spring was in his Arm, to throw:How high he held his Shield, and rose at ev'ry blow!

     1697, John Dryden, Virgil's Aeneis, Bk. xi, ll. 437–8

   • Mrs Durbeyfield, excited by her song, trod the rocker with all the spring that was left in her after a long day's seething in the suds.

     1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 30

(countable) The source from which an action or supply of something springs.  quotations  examples

(countable) Something which causes others or another to spring forth or spring into action, particularly

1. A cause, a motive, etc.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Our Author ſhuns by vulgar Springs to move / The Hero's Glory, or the Virgin's Love; […]

     1712 (date written), [Alexander] Pope, “Prologue, by Mr. Pope. Spoken by Mr. Wilks.”, in [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713

2. (obsolete) A lively piece of music.