spare

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Kept in reserve and ready to be used if needed; extra.

   Always keep a spare tire in the trunk of your car.

2. 2
   verb

   To be able to give someone time, money, or something you have without needing it yourself.

   Could you spare a few minutes to help me?

3. 3
   verb

   To save someone from having to experience something unpleasant.

   I'll spare you the boring details of the meeting.

4. 4
   adj

   Plain and simple, with nothing extra; not plentiful.

   They lived on a spare diet of bread and soup.

5. 5
   adj

   Thin and lean.

   He had the spare figure of a marathon runner.

Common collocations

• spare key Adjective + noun
• spare room Adjective + noun
• spare cash Adjective + noun
• spare part Adjective + noun

From Middle English spare, spar, from Old English spær (“sparing, scant”), from Proto-Germanic *sparaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sph₁rós, from the root *speh₁-. Compare Dutch spaar(zaam), German spar(sam) and spär(lich), Swedish spar(sam), Icelandic sparr (“sparing”); also Latin (pro)sperus (“lucky”), Old Church Slavonic споръ (sporŭ, “plentiful”), Albanian shperr (“earn money”), Persian سپار (sepâr, “entrust; deposit”), Ancient Greek σπαρνός (sparnós, “rare”), Sanskrit स्फिर (sphirá, “thick”).

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