Sekirov Dictionary

spring

/ˈspɹɪŋ/

noun 28
verb 38
forms 11
phrases 9

noun28

•
the season that comes after winter, when days grow longer and flowers begin to open
- Spring is the time of the year most species reproduce.
- You can visit me in the spring, when the weather is bearable.
•
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.
- Chinese New Year always occurs in January or February but is called the "Spring Festival" throughout East Asia because it is reckoned as the beginning of their spring.
•
The three months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere.
- I spent my spring holidays in Morocco.
- The spring issue will be out next week.
•
An elastic mechanical part or device in any shape (e.g., flat, curved, coiled), made of flexible material (usually spring steel) that exerts force and attempts to spring back when bent, compressed, or stretched.
- We jumped so hard the bed springs broke.
•
A spray or body of water springing from the ground.
- This beer was brewed with pure spring water.
•
An act of springing: a leap, a jump.
- The pris'ner with a spring from prison broke; Then stretch'd his feather'd fans with all his might, And to the neighb'ring maple wing'd his flight. — 1700
Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back.
Elasticity: the property of a body springing back to its original form after compression, stretching, etc.
•
Elastic energy, power, or force.
- Heav'ns what a spring was in his Arm, to throw: How high he held his Shield, and rose at ev'ry blow! — 1697
•
(figurative) The time of something's growth; the early stages of some process.
- ...and it came to passe about the spring of the day, that Samuel called Saul to the top of the house... — 1611
•
(figurative) A period of political liberalization and democratization.
- Solidarity grew from the Lenin Shipyard here and threatened a Polish spring before martial law was imposed in 1981. — 1989
Ellipsis of spring tide, the especially high tide shortly after full and new moons.
•
The source from which an action or supply of something springs.
- As wel the singers as the players on instruments shall bee there: all my springs are in thee. — 1611
Something which causes others or another to spring forth or spring into action.
•
A cause, a motive, etc.
- Our Author shuns by vulgar Springs to move / The Hero's Glory, or the Virgin's Love; […] — 1712
Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back.
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.
A shoot, a young tree.
•
A line from a vessel's end or side to its anchor cable used to diminish or control its movement.
- He had warped round with the springs on his cable, and had recommenced his fire upon the Aurora. — 1836
•
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.
- You should put a couple of springs onto the jetty to stop the boat moving so much.
(slang) An erection of the penis.
(figurative) A youth.
(figurative) A race, a lineage.
A grove of trees; a forest.
•
A group of teal.
- A peep over the bank, and a "spring" of teal are up, but only to divide into two, and I mark down the larger one into open water some hundred and fifty yards off. — 1894
(no longer used) The rising of the sea at high tide.
•
(no longer used) A crack which has sprung up in a mast, spar, or (rare) a plank or seam.
- A spar is said to be sprung, when it is cracked or split,... and the crack is called a spring. — 1846
(no longer used) A lively piece of music.

verb38

•
To move with great speed and energy.
- Deer spring with their hind legs, using their front hooves to steady themselves.
•
To leap over.
- I sprang the fence, and was soon in the village street. — 1876
•
To move or burst forth.
- The boat sprang a leak and began to sink.
•
To appear.
- ...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
(figurative) To arise, to come into existence.
•
To tell, to share.
- Sorry to spring it on you like this but I've been offered another job.
•
(figurative) To enliven.
- He hit the gas and the car sprang to life.
•
To be born, descend, or originate from
- He sprang from peasant stock.
•
To secure a person's release from custody; to free or bail out of jail.
- The Big Man, of course, had had an alibi as solid as Fort Knox. He had been held and questioned, but was quickly sprung by the best lawyer in Harlem. — 1954
•
(slang) To free from imprisonment, especially by facilitating an illegal escape.
- His lieutenants hired a team of miners to help spring him.
(slang, rare) To be free of imprisonment, especially by illegal escape.
To cause to spring (all senses).
•
To cause to work or open by sudden application of pressure.
- He sprang the trap.
•
To grow, to sprout.
- Commerce! beneath whose poison-breathing shade No solitary virtue dares to spring, […] — 1813
•
To burst into pieces, to explode, to shatter.
- On the 22nd the mines sprang, and took very good effect. — 1698
•
To go off.
- The whole contraption appears liable to spring apart at any moment. — 2012
•
To pay or spend a certain sum, to yield.
- He wouldn't spring a nickel for a bag of peanuts. — 1957
•
To crack.
- The Edward sprang hir foremast. — 1582
•
To deform owing to excessive pressure, to become warped; to intentionally deform in order to position and then straighten in place.
- A piece of timber sometimes springs in seasoning.
- He sprang in the slat.
•
To build, to form the initial curve of.
- They sprung an arch over the lintel.
•
To extend, to curve.
- The arches spring from the front posts.
To equip with springs, especially (of vehicles) to equip with a suspension.
•
(Australia, slang) To catch in an illegal act or compromising position.
- He figured that nobody would ever spring him, but he figured wrong. — 1980
To come upon and flush out.
•
To spend the springtime somewhere.
- If Tad’s father and Tad had wintered, springed, summered, and autumned together for an hundred years instead of fifteen they could[…] — 1912
(dialect, UK) To mature.
•
(dialect, UK) To swell with milk or pregnancy.
- “Gee, Dad, Nancy’s springing all right,” Ray said and paused in spontaneous pleasure. Stan Parker came, and together they looked at their swelling heifer. — 1955
To turn a vessel using a spring attached to its anchor cable.
To find or get enough food during springtime.
To act as a spring: to strongly rebound.
(no longer used) To begin.
(figurative, no longer used) to inspire, to motivate.
(no longer used) To rise in social position or military rank, to be promoted.
•
(no longer used) To breed with, to impregnate.
- ...[they] sought the fairest stoned horses to spring their mares... — 1585
(no longer used) To wet, to moisten.
(slang, no longer used) To put bad money into circulation.
(slang, no longer used) To raise an offered price.
(no longer used) To sound, to play.

forms

springed · sprong · sprung · sprang · sprangest · sprungest · ysprong · springing · springeth · springs · springest

Phrases with spring

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