spur

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a sharp prod fixed to a rider's heel and used to urge a horse onward

   cowboys know not to squat with their spurs on

2. 2
   verb

   goad with sharp protrusions on a rider's heel

   I spurred my horse to make it go faster.

3. 3
   verb

   equip with spurs

   spur horses

4. 4
   verb

   incite or stimulate

   The Academy was formed to spur research

5. 5
   noun

   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.

   Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this hour I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting; From helmet to the spur all blood he was.

6. 6
   noun

   A jab given with the spurs.

   I had hardly said the word, when Kit jumped into the saddle, and gave his horse a whip and a spur — and off it cantered, as if it were in as great a hurry to be married as Kit himself.

7. 7
   noun

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

   She is a theame of honour and renowne, / A ſpurre to valiant and magnanimous deeds, / Whoſe preſent courage may beate downe our foes, / And fame in time to come canonize us, [...]

8. 8
   noun

   Roots, tree roots.

   […] the strong-bas'd promontory / Have I made shake; and by the spurs pluck'd up / The pine and cedar […]

Etymology

From Middle English spure, spore, from Old English spora, spura, from Proto-West Germanic *spurō, from Proto-Germanic *spurô, from Proto-Indo-European *sperH- (“to kick”).