Spear
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /spɪə̯(ɹ)/
- Canada IPA: /spɪɹ/
- Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Origin
From Middle English spear, spere, from Old English spere, from Proto-Germanic *speru (compare West Frisian spear, Dutch speer, German Speer, Old Norse spjör), related to *sparrô (compare Middle Dutch sparre ("rafter"), Old Norse sparri ("spar, rafter"), sperra ("rafter, beam")), from Proto-Indo-European *sperH- (compare Latin sparus ("short spear"), Albanian ferrë ("thorn, thornbush")).
Full definition of spear
Noun
spear
(plural spears)- A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.
- (now chiefly historical) A soldier armed with such a weapon; a spearman.
- 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 187:Two of the four spears came directly from Lady Margaret's staff. One was her great-nephew Maurice St John ….
- A sharp tool used by fishermen to retrieve fish.
- (ice hockey) an illegal maneuver using the end of a hockey stick to strike into another hockey player.
- (wrestling) a running tackle on an opponent performed in professional wrestling.
- A spearman.
- A shoot, as of grass; a spire.
- The feather of a horse.
- The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.
- A long, thin strip from a vegetable.asparagus and broccoli spears
Verb
- To penetrate or strike with, or as if with, any long narrow object. To make a thrusting motion that catches an object on the tip of a long device.
- (intransitive) To shoot into a long stem, as some plants do.