spring

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To move upward or forward in a single quick motion or a series of such motions; leap.
2. v. To move suddenly on or as if on a spring: The door sprang shut. The emergency room team sprang into action.
3. v. To appear or come into being quickly: New businesses were springing up rapidly. See Synonyms at stem¹.
4. v. To issue or emerge suddenly: A cry sprang from her lips. A thought springs to mind.
5. v. To extend or curve upward, as an arch.
6. v. To arise from a source; develop.
7. v. To become warped, split, or cracked. Used of wood.
8. v. To move out of place; come loose, as parts of a mechanism.
9. v. Slang To pay another's expenses: He offered to spring for the dinner.
10. v. To cause to leap, dart, or come forth suddenly.
11. v. To jump over; vault.
12. v. To release from a checked or inoperative position; actuate: spring a trap.
13. v. To cause to warp, split, or crack, as a mast.
14. v. To bend by force.
15. v. To present or disclose unexpectedly or suddenly: "He sprung on the world this novel approach to political journalism” ( Curtis Wilkie).
16. v. Slang To cause to be released from prison or other confinement.
17. n. An elastic device, such as a coil of wire, that regains its original shape after being compressed or extended.
18. n. An actuating force or factor; a motive.
19. n. Elasticity; resilience.
20. n. Energetic bounce: a spring to one's step.
21. n. The act or an instance of jumping or leaping.
22. n. A usually rapid return to normal shape after removal of stress; recoil.
23. n. A small stream of water flowing naturally from the earth.
24. n. A source, origin, or beginning.
25. n. The season of the year, occurring between winter and summer, during which the weather becomes warmer and plants revive, extending in the Northern Hemisphere from the vernal equinox to the summer solstice and popularly considered to comprise March, April, and May.
26. n. A time of growth and renewal.
27. n. A warping, bending, or cracking, as that caused by excessive force.
28. n. Architecture The point at which an arch or vault rises from its support.
29. adj. Of or acting like a spring; resilient.
30. adj. Having or supported by springs: a spring mattress.
31. adj. Of, relating to, occurring in, or appropriate to the season of spring: spring showers; spring planting.
32. adj. Grown during the season of spring: spring crops.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To leap up; jump.
2. To move with leaps; bound along; rush.
3. Specifically To start up; rise suddenly, as a bird from a covert.
4. To be impelled with speed or violence; shoot; fly; dart.
5. To start, recoil, fly back, etc., as from a forced position; escape from constraint; give; relax; especially, to yield to natural elasticity or to the force of a spring. See spring, n., 9.
6. To be shivered or shattered; split; crack.
7. To come into being; begin to grow; shoot up; come up; arise; specifically, of the day, to dawn: said of any kind of genesis or beginning, and often followed by up.
8. To take one's birth, rise, or origin (from or out of any one or any thing); be derived; proceed, as from a specified source, stock, or set of conditions.
9. To come into view or notice; be spread by popular report; gain fame or prevalence.
10. To rise above a given level; have a relatively great elevation; tower.
11. To warp, or become warped; bend or wind from a straight line or plane surface, as a piece of timber or plank in seasoning.
12. To bend to the oars and make the boat leap or spring forward, as in an emergency: often in the form of order: as, “Spring ahead hard, men!”
13. Synonyms Leap, Jump, etc. See skip, intransitive verb
14. To cause to leap or dart; urge or launch at full speed.
15. To start or rouse, as game; cause to rise from the earth or from a covert; flush: as, to spring a pheasant.
16. To bring out hastily or unexpectedly; produce suddenly; bring, show, contrive, etc., with unexpected promptness, or as a surprise.
17. To jump over; overleap.
18. To cause to spring up or arise; bring forth; generate.
19. To scatter as in sowing; strew about; shed here and there; sprinkle (a liquid).
20. To sprinkle, as with line drops, particles, or spots; especially, to moisten with drops of a liquid: as, to spring clothes.
21. To shiver; split; crack; as, to spring a bat; the mast was sprung.
22. To cause to burst or explode; discharge.
23. To shift out of place; relax; loosen.
24. Specifically To relax the spring of; cause to act suddenly by means of a spring; touch off, as by a trigger: as, to spring a trap: to spring a rattle; also figuratively: as, to spring a plot or a joke.
25. To insert, as a beam in a place too short for it, by bending it so as to bring the ends nearer together, and allowing it to straighten when in place: usually with in: as, to spring in a slat or bar.
26. In architecture, to commence from an abutment or pier: as, to spring an arch.
27. Nautical, to haul by means of springs or cables: as, to spring the stern of a vessel around.
28. In carpentry, to unite (the boards of a roof) with bevel-joints in order to keep out wet.
29. n. The act of springing or leaping A leaping or darting; a vault; a bound.
30. n. A flying back; the resilience of a body recovering its former state by its elasticity.
31. n. The act or time of springing or appearing; the first appearance; the beginning; birth; rise; origin: as, the spring of mankind; the spring of the year; the spring of the morning or of the day (see dayspring).
32. n. Specifically The first of the four seasons of the year; the season in which plants begin to vegetate and rise; the vernal season (see season); hence, figuratively, the first and freshest period of any time or condition.
33. n. That which springs or shoots up. A sprout; shoot; branch; sapling.
34. n. A young wood; any piece of woodland; a grove; a shrubbery.
35. n. A rod; a switch.
36. n. A youth; a springal.
37. n. Offspring; race.
38. n. Water rising to the surface of the earth from below, and either flowing away in the form of small stream or standing as a pool or small lake. , , , , , Rivers are chiefly fed, both before and after being joined by their various affluents, by underground springs, and some pools of water large enough to be called ponds or even lakes are supplied in the same way. The conditions under which springs are formed are exceedingly variable, at once as regards the quantity of water, its temperature, the amount and nature of the gaseous and solid substances which it holds in solution, and the manner in which it is delivered at the surface; hence springs are variously designated in accordance with these peculiarities, the most familiar terms used for this purpose being shallow, simple, common, or surface; hot, boiling, thermal; mineral, medicinal; and spouting, or geyser, as this kind of spring is more generally called. Shallow or surface springs ordinarily furnish water which is pretty nearly pure, can be used for drinking, and does not differ much in temperature from the mean of the locality where they occur. They are due to the fact that the water falling on the surface in the form of rain, or furnished by melting snow, sinks to a certain depth (according as the soil and underlying rocks are more or less porous or permeable), where it is held in greater or less quantity according to the amount of rainfall and the thickness and relative position of the various permeable and impermeable formations with which it is brought in contact, but seeks under the influence of gravitation to escape, and makes its appearance at the surface when the topographical or geological conditions are favorable. Thus, a bed of gravel or sand resting on a mass of clay (the former being very permeable, the latter almost impermeable) will become saturated with water below a certain depth, the distance from the surface of the saturated sand or gravel, or the line of saturation, as it is called, varying with the climate and season. If, however, there be an adjacent ravine or valley which is cut deep enough to expose the line of junction of the permeable and impermeable formations, the water will escape along this line in greater or less quantity, giving rise to springs, which will vary in number and copiousness with the varying conditions which present themselves. The water of such springs, not having descended to any great depth, will not vary much in temperature from the mean of the locality. Very different are the conditions in the case of thermal or hot springs, which may have any temperature up to boiling, and of which the water may have been heated either by coming from great depths or by contact with volcanic rocks; hence thermal springs are phenomena very characteristic of volcanic and geologically disturbed or faulted regions, and those hot springs which are of the geyser type (see geyser) are most interesting from the scenic point of view. The medicinal properties and curative effects of various hot springs are of great practical importance; and many such springs, in Europe and the United States, are places much resorted to by invalids and pleasure-seekers, The variety of constituents, both solid and gaseous, held in solution by different hot springs is very great. From the medicinal point of view, springs are variously classified, and without regard to temperature, because the nature and quantity of the substances which the water contains are not by any means entirely dependent on temperature, although in general the hotter the water the larger the amount of foreign matter likely to be held in solution, while a high temperature is undoubtedly in many cases an important element in the therapeutic effect produced. A convenient classification of mineral waters, from the medicinal point of view, is into
39. n. Figuratively, any fount or source of supply.
40. n. An elastic body, as a strip or wire of steel coiled spirally, a steel rod or plate, strips of steel suitably joined together, a mass or strip of india-rubber, etc., which, when bent or forced from its natural state, has the power of recovering it again in virtue of its elasticity. Springs are used for various purposes—as for diminishing concussion, as in carriages; for motive power, as in clocks and watches; for communicating motion by sudden release from a state of tension, as a bow, the spring of a gun-lock, etc.; for measuring weight and other force, as in the spring-balance; as regulators to control the movement of wheel-works, etc.
41. n. In entomology, a special elastic organ by which an insect is enabled to spring into the air. The springing-organ of species of the family Poduridæ. It consists of several bristle-like appendages at the end of the abdomen, which are united at their bases and bent under the body. In leaping, the end of the abdomen is first bent down and then suddenly extended, bringing the elastic bristles with great force against the ground. See cut under springtail.
42. n. Any active or motive power, physical or mental; that by which action is produced or propagated; motive.
43. n. Capacity for springing; elastic power; elasticity, either physical or mental.
44. n. Nautical: The start, as of a plank; an opening in a seam; a leak.
45. n. A crack in a mast or yard, running obliquely or transversely.
46. n. A line made fast to the bow or quarter of a ship, in order to pull the head or stern in any required direction.
47. n. A rope extending from some part of a ship to another ship, or to a fixed object, to cant or move the ship by being hauled upon.
48. n. A quick and cheerful tune; a skip.
49. n. In falconry, a collection of teal.
50. n. Synonyms Fountain, etc. See well.
51. Pertaining to, suitable for, or occurring or used in the spring of the year: as, spring fashions; spring wheat.
52. To fit with springs, as a carriage or a motor-vehicle.
53. n. In golf, the movement of a ball lying in a small cup or hollow when struck with a straight-faced club.
54. n. A helical spring made by coiling a cylindrical or round steel rod around a mandrel.

Wiktionary

1. v. To jump or leap.
2. v. To produce or disclose unexpectedly, especially of surprises, traps, etc.
3. v. slang To release or set free, especially from prison.
4. n. countable Traditionally the first of the four seasons of the year in temperate regions, in which plants spring from the ground and trees come into blossom, following winter and preceding summer.
5. n. countable Meteorologically, the months of March, April and May in the northern hemisphere (or September, October and November in the southern).
6. n. countable The astronomically delineated period from the moment of vernal equinox, approximately March 21 in the northern hemisphere to the moment of the summer solstice, approximately June 21. (See Spring (season) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Spring (season) for other variations.)
7. n. countable Spring tide; a tide of greater-than-average range, that is, around the first or third quarter of a lunar month, or around the times of the new or full moon.
8. n. countable A place where water emerges from the ground.
9. n. uncountable The property of a body of springing to its original form after being compressed, stretched, etc.
10. n. countable A mechanical device made of flexible or coiled material that exerts force when it is bent, compressed or stretched.
11. n. countable, nautical A rope attaching the bow of a vessel to the stern-side of the jetty, or vice versa, to stop the vessel from surging.
12. n. countable, slang An erection of the penis.
13. n. countable The source of an action

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To leap; to bound; to jump.
2. v. To issue with speed and violence; to move with activity; to dart; to shoot.
3. v. To start or rise suddenly, as from a covert.
4. v. To fly back.
5. v. To bend from a straight direction or plane surface; to become warped.
6. v. To shoot up, out, or forth; to come to the light; to begin to appear; to emerge; as a plant from its seed, as streams from their source, and the like; -- often followed by up, forth, or out.
7. v. To issue or proceed, as from a parent or ancestor; to result, as from a cause, motive, reason, or principle.
8. v. To grow; to thrive; to prosper.
9. v. To cause to spring up; to start or rouse, as game; to cause to rise from the earth, or from a covert.
10. v. To produce or disclose suddenly or unexpectedly.
11. v. To cause to explode.
12. v. To crack or split; to bend or strain so as to weaken.
13. v. To cause to close suddenly, as the parts of a trap operated by a spring.
14. v. To bend by force, as something stiff or strong; to force or put by bending, as a beam into its sockets, and allowing it to straighten when in place; -- often with in, out, etc..
15. v. To pass over by leaping.
16. v. colloquial To release (a person) from confinement, especially from a prison.
17. n. A leap; a bound; a jump.
18. n. A flying back; the resilience of a body recovering its former state by its elasticity.
19. n. Elastic power or force.
20. n. An elastic body of any kind, as steel, India rubber, tough wood, or compressed air, used for various mechanical purposes, as receiving and imparting power, diminishing concussion, regulating motion, measuring weight or other force.
21. n. Any source of supply; especially, the source from which a stream proceeds; an issue of water from the earth; a natural fountain.
22. n. Any active power; that by which action, or motion, is produced or propagated; cause; origin; motive.
23. n. obsolete, obsolete, obsolete, obsolete, obsolete, obsolete That which springs, or is originated, from a source
24. n. obsolete, obsolete, obsolete, obsolete, obsolete A race; lineage.
25. n. obsolete, obsolete, obsolete A youth; a springal.
26. n. obsolete A shoot; a plant; a young tree; also, a grove of trees; woodland.
27. n. obsolete That which causes one to spring; specifically, a lively tune.
28. n. The season of the year when plants begin to vegetate and grow; the vernal season, usually comprehending the months of March, April, and May, in the middle latitudes north of the equator.
29. n. The time of growth and progress; early portion; first stage.
30. n. A crack or fissure in a mast or yard, running obliquely or transversely.
31. n. A line led from a vessel's quarter to her cable so that by tightening or slacking it she can be made to lie in any desired position; a line led diagonally from the bow or stern of a vessel to some point upon the wharf to which she is moored.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. spring back; spring away from an impact
2. v. produce or disclose suddenly or unexpectedly
3. n. a natural flow of ground water
4. v. develop suddenly
5. n. a point at which water issues forth
6. n. a metal elastic device that returns to its shape or position when pushed or pulled or pressed
7. n. the elasticity of something that can be stretched and returns to its original length
8. n. the season of growth
9. v. move forward by leaps and bounds
10. v. develop into a distinctive entity
11. n. a light, self-propelled movement upwards or forwards