1 a sharp pointed object that riders sometimes wear on the heels of their boots and use to encourage their horse to go faster:
He dug his spurs into the horse's sides.
2 [usuallysing.] ~ (to sth) a fact or an event that makes you want to do sth better or more quickly:
His speech was a powerful spur to action. * A few encouraging words might provide just the spur she needs.
3 an area of high ground that sticks out from a mountain or hill
4 a road or a railway/railroad track that leads from the main road or line
IDIOMS
on the spur of the moment suddenly, without planning in advance:
I phoned him up on the spur of the moment. * a spur-of-the-moment decision
win / earn your spurs (formal) to achieve fame or success
verb (-rr-) [VN]
1 ~ sb/sth (on) (to sth / to do sth) to encourage sb to do sth or to encourage them to try harder to achieve sth:
Her difficult childhood spurred her on to succeed. * I was spurred into action by the letter. * The band has been spurred on by the success of their last single. * My trainer spurred me to keep up a pace of four miles an hour.
2 to make sth happen faster or sooner:
The agreement is essential to spurring economic growth around the world. * The fire, spurred by high temperatures and strong winds, had burnt more than 140 acres.
3 to encourage a horse to go faster, especially by pushing the spurs on your boots into its side:
As he shouted his order he spurred the horse forward suddenly.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for spur is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is spur a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, spur is tagged as noun.
Does spur appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — spur appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
