Word Finder - spur

definition

A rigid implement, often roughly y-shaped, that is fixed to one's heel for the purpose of prodding a horse. Often worn by, and emblematic of, the cowboy or the knight.

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A jab given with the spurs.

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Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.

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An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.

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Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.

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Roots, tree roots.

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A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.

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A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale to strip off the blubber.

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A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.

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The short wooden buttress of a post.

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A projection from the round base of a column, occupying the angle of a square plinth upon which the base rests, or bringing the bottom bed of the base to a nearly square form. It is generally carved in leafage.

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Ergotized rye or other grain.

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A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.

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A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.

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A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.

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A branch of a vein.

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A very short branch line of a railway line.

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A short thin side shoot from a branch, especially one that bears fruit or, in conifers, the shoots that bear the leaves.

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To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.

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To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object

synonyms

• drive
• impel
• incite
• instigate
• stimulate

definition

To put spurs on.

example

to spur boots

definition

To press forward; to travel in great haste.

On the spur of the moment you pick up the suitcases, put them in your trunk, and drive off.

I did it on the spur of the moment.

On the spur of the moment he tele­phoned her.

We all do something on the spur of the moment once in awhile.

These have a speed reduction from armature shaft to bridge column of 1500 to I, through four intermediate spur gears and a worm gear.

The city is built upon the lower slope of the Serra do Ouro Preto, a spur of the Espinhago, deeply cut by ravines and divided into a number of irregular hills, up which the narrow, crooked streets are built and upon which groups of low, old-fashioned houses form each a separate nucleus.

Leave it to Alex to think so logically on the spur of the moment, and in such an emotional situation.

The proboscis, passing down this groove to the spur, becomes dusted with pollen; as it is drawn back, it presses up the lip-like valve of the stigma so that no pollen can enter the stigmatic chamber; but as it enters the next flower it leaves some pollen on the upper surface of the valve, and thus cross-fertilization is effected.

The circumstance that the gold turned black on exposure to the humid air (owing to the presence of silver) gave the name of Ouro Preto to the mountain spur and the settlement.

A bee, we will assume, attracted by the colour and perfume of the flower, alights on that part of it which is the first to attract its attention - the lip. There, guided by the hairs or ridges before-mentioned, it is led to the orifice of the spur with its store of honeyed juice.

There are three principal systems of pruning vines, termed the long-rod, the short-rod and the spur systems, and good crops have been obtained by each of them.

The Sierra Nevada range, which forms the western rim of the Basin, sends into the state a single lofty spur, the Washoe Mountains.

Tmolus, a steep and lofty spur of which formed the citadel.

The spur system has, however, become the most general.

Rostov saw how the Emperor's rather round shoulders shuddered as if a cold shiver had run down them, how his left foot began convulsively tapping the horse's side with the spur, and how the well-trained horse looked round unconcerned and did not stir.

Was she always misinterpreting his intent, or was he merely quick-witted enough to think of a good excuse on the spur of the moment?

I guess that shows they at least believed what they were doing was right—not just whacking you on the spur of the moment because they were mad as hell, taking their anger out on your backside.

On the spur of the moment he picked up the phone and dialed Cece Baldwin, a number he now had committed to memory from the many unsuc­cessful times he'd made the call.

Even here, however, the main central water-divide, or axis of the chain, is apparently not the line of highest peaks, which must be looked for to the south, where the great square-headed giant called Tirach Mir dominates Chitral from a southern spur.

A spur of the Greben mountains runs out below two shoals where the river suddenly narrows to 300 yds.

In common with the other monotremes, the male echidna has its heel provided with a sharp hollow spur, connected with a secreting gland, and with muscles capable of pressing the secretion from the gland into the spur.

The small and mobile forelimbs bear four complete fingers, with the thumb reduced to a bony spur.

It needed a second insult - the firing on " La Provence," a vessel carrying a flag of truce, in the harbour of Algiers (August 3, 1829) - to spur the French government to further action than an ineffectual blockade.

Meanwhile, Enghien's army had at the prearranged hour (4 P.M.) attacked Mercy's position on the Ebringen spur.

He himself and all the young nobles of his staff dismounted and led the infantry forward again, the prince threw his baton into the enemy's lines for the soldiers to retrieve, and in the end, after a bitter struggle, the Bavarians, whose reserves had been taken away to oppose Turenne in the Merzhausen defile, abandoned the entrenchments and disappeared into the woods of the adjoining spur.

The surface of the ground is sharply undulating, an elevated spur extending south-west from the neighbourhood of Highgate, and turning south through Hampstead.

From a point between Curzola and the north shore of the spur of Monte Gargano there is a ridge giving shallower water, and a broken chain of a few islets extends across the sea.

The picturesque Bay of Rodosto is enclosed by the great promontory of Combos, a spur about 2000 ft.

The temple site was on a low spur of the hill, below the town.

But all knights were also knights of the spur or " equites aurati," because their spurs were golden or gilt, - the spurs of squires being of silver or white metal, - and these became their peculiar badge in popular estimation and proverbial speech.

The Order of St Sylvester was originally founded as the Order of the Golden Spur by Paul IV.

In 1905 the order was divided into three classes, and a separate order, that of the Golden Spur or Golden Legion (Militia Aurata) was established, in one class, with the numbers limited to a hundred.

The characteristic feature of this portion of the course of the Rhone is the number of narrow gorges or cluses through which it rushes, while it is forced by the southern spur of the Jura to run in a southerly direction, till, after rounding the base of that spur, it can flow freely westwards to Lyons.

It flows past Yenne (left) and beneath the picturesque fortress (formerly a Carthusian monastery) of Pierre Chatel (right) before it attains the foot of the extreme southern spur of the Jura, at a height of 696 ft., not far from the village of Cordon, and just where the Guiers flows in (left) from the mountains of the Grande Chartreuse.

Kerazeh, the undoubted site of Chorazin, stands on a rocky spur 900 ft.

Kalat el-Hosn ("castle of the stronghold") is a ruin on a rocky spur opposite Tiberias.

In the early years of the reign the people, especially in the south and west, attacked and plundered the Jews; and the consequent disorder was greatly increased by the ravages of the Black Death and by the practices and preaching of the Flagellants, both events serving to spur the maddened populace to renewed outrages on the Jews.

The citadel, which is built on a spur of the Mokattam hills, occupies the S.E.

The nerve cell just prior to sleep is still well capable of response to stimuli, although perhaps the threshold-value of the stimulus has become rather high, whereas after entrance upon sleep and continuance of sleep for several hours, and more, when all spur to the dissimilation process has been long withheld, the threshold-value of the sensory stimulus becomes enormously higher than before.

To build south of the river, and on and under the last east spur of Casius, was to have security against invasion from the north, and command of the abundant waters of the mountain.

On the south-west it is bounded by the range of hills that terminates in the spur of Carmel.

The better residential quarters lie along the seaboard and on the higher ground, notably on a western spur of the Castle Hill.

From near the Dorah pass (14,800 ft.), which connects Chitral with the Panja (or Oxus) river, a long, straight, snow-clad spur reaches southwards, which divides the Kafiristan valley of Bashgol from that of Chitral, and this continues to denote the eastern limits of Afghanistan till it nearly touches the Chitral river opposite the village of Arnawai, m.

Here the Bashgol and Chitral valleys unite and the boundary passes to the water-divide east of the Chitral river, after crossing it by a spur which leaves the insignificant Arnawai valley to the north; along this water-divide it extends to a point nearly opposite the quaint old town of Pashat in the Kunar valley (the Chitral river has become the Kunar in its course southwards), and then stretches away in an uneven and undefined line, dividing certain sections of the Mohmands from each other by hypothetical landmarks, till it strikes the Kabul river near Palosi.

A glance at the Milky Way, with its sharply defined irregular boundaries, its clefts and diverging spur, is almost sufficient to assure us that it is a real cluster of stars, and does not merely indicate the directions in which the universe extends farthest.

A pair of spur wheels in gear is an example of a higher pair, because the wheels have contact between their teeth along lines only.

A broad, flat spur of the Carpathians - the Avratynsk plateau - which enters from the west and stretches out eastward towards the Dnieper occupies its southern portion, reaching a maximum elevation of 1200 ft.; another branch of the Carpathians in the west of the government ranges between 700 and goo ft.

It is an isolated spur of the Aravalli range, being completely detached from that chain by a narrow valley 7 miles across, in which flows the western Banas.

It stands on the Jettenbiihl, a spur of the Kdnigsstuhl (1800 ft.), at a height of 330 ft.

Forty miles to the west of the Saalburg there is a modern national monument, the colossal figure of Germania, which stands on a bold spur of the Taunus 740 ft.