Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A slender stalk, as of asparagus.
  • intransitive verb To sprout like a spear.
  • noun A weapon consisting of a long shaft with a sharply pointed end.
  • noun A shaft with a sharp point and barbs for spearing fish.
  • noun A soldier armed with a spear.
  • intransitive verb To pierce with a spear or other sharp object.
  • intransitive verb To catch with a thrust of the arm.
  • intransitive verb Football To block (an opponent) by ramming with the helmet, in violation of the rules.
  • intransitive verb Sports To jab (an opponent) with the blade of a hockey stick, in violation of the rules.
  • intransitive verb To stab at something with a spear or other sharp object.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A weapon consisting of a penetrating head attached to a long shaft of wood, designed to be thrust by or launched from the hand at an enemy or at game.
  • noun A man armed with a spear; a spearman.
  • noun A sharp-pointed instrument with barbed tines, generally three or four, used for stabbing fish and other animals; a fish-gig.
  • noun An instrument like or suggestive of an actual spear, as some articles of domestic or mechanical use, one of the long pieces fixed transversely to the beam or body of chevaux-de-frise, in some parts of England a bee's sting, etc.
  • noun One of the pieces of timber which together form the main rod of the Cornish pumping-engine.
  • noun The feather of a horse. Also called the streak of the spear.
  • noun A spire: now used only of the stalks of grasses: as, a spear of wheat.
  • To pierce or strike with a spear or similar weapon: as, to spear fish.
  • To shoot into a long stem; germinate, as barley. See spire.
  • An obsolete form of speer.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To shoot into a long stem, as some plants. See spire.
  • noun A long, pointed weapon, used in war and hunting, by thrusting or throwing; a weapon with a long shaft and a sharp head or blade; a lance.
  • noun Fig.: A spearman.
  • noun A sharp-pointed instrument with barbs, used for stabbing fish and other animals.
  • noun A shoot, as of grass; a spire.
  • noun The feather of a horse. See Feather, n., 4.
  • noun The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.
  • noun the off hind foot of a horse.
  • noun (Bot.) meadow grass. See under Meadow.
  • noun the hand in which a horseman holds a spear; the right hand.
  • noun the male line of a family.
  • noun (Bot.) the common thistle (Cnicus lanceolatus).
  • transitive verb To pierce with a spear; to kill with a spear.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.
  • noun A soldier armed with such a weapon; a spearman.
  • noun A sharp tool used by fishermen to retrieve fish.
  • noun ice hockey an illegal maneuver using the end of a hockey stick to strike into another hockey player.
  • noun wrestling a running tackle on an opponent performed in professional wrestling.
  • noun A long, thin strip from a vegetable.
  • 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.
  • verb intransitive To shoot into a long stem, as some plants do.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a long pointed rod used as a tool or weapon
  • verb pierce with a spear
  • verb thrust up like a spear
  • noun an implement with a shaft and barbed point used for catching fish

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of spire.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English spere, from Old English.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English spere, from Proto-Germanic *speri (compare Dutch speer, German Speer, Old Norse spjör), from *sparron (compare Middle Dutch sparre ("rafter"), Old Norse sparri ("spar, rafter"), sperra ("rafter, beam")), from Proto-Indo-European *spar- (compare Latin sparus ("short spear"), Albanian ferrë ("thorn, thornbush")).

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Examples

  • This hungry bird gives another meaning to the term spear fishing - as she turns her unlucky prey into a fish kebab.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Telegraph Staff 2011

  • His neck resembles an Easter ham and his spear is the size of a telephone pole.

    Boing Boing: May 16, 2004 - May 22, 2004 Archives 2004

  • An 'the blacksmith made him what he called a spear-head.

    The Long Roll Mary Johnston 1903

  • Here are a few of the options: Collins/Hi-Ball Ice This long "spear" is perfect for tall glasses, slowly lowering the temperature of your drink without affecting any carbonation in it.

    Neve Luxury Ice 2009

  • Among these changes we can count: the shift from an organisation with mass support to a movement of mass participation; the adoption of the Freedom Charter as the ideological lodestar of the movement; the emergence of non-racialism not only as a goal but as a way to that goal; similarly, the emergence of non-sexism not only as an goal but as a way to that goal; the clear role of workers through their organised formations, which he described as the spear to the ANC's shield; through his own example, the clearest definition of the role of traditional leadership in a democratic and democratising society; the adoption of the tactic of international sanctions against apartheid South Africa; the adoption of armed struggle against apartheid and the organisational review necessary to ensure that adoption did not have the consequence of a wholesale legal assumption, so that to have been an ANC member did not automatically mean being part of the armed wing.

    We are the children of Luthuli 2007

  • Among these changes we can count: the shift from an organisation with mass support to a movement of mass participation; the adoption of the Freedom Charter as the ideological lodestar of the movement; the emergence of non-racialism not only as a goal but as a way to that goal; similarly, the emergence of non-sexism not only as an goal but as a way to that goal; the clear role of workers through their organised formations, which he described as the spear to the ANC's shield; through his own example, the clearest definition of the role of traditional leadership in a democratic and democratising society; the adoption of the tactic of international sanctions against apartheid South Africa; the adoption of armed struggle against apartheid and the organisational review necessary to ensure that adoption did not have the consequence of a wholesale legal assumption, so that to have been an ANC member did not automatically mean being part of the armed wing.

    Special Edition: A Tribute to Chief Albert Luthuli 2007

  • He did, however, kill a buffalo with a spear from the ground.

    I just watched Jared Allen (DE from the Vikings) kill a bull elk with a spear, on TV. What are your thoughts on spear hunting? 2009

  • He did, however, kill a buffalo with a spear from the ground.

    I just watched Jared Allen (DE from the Vikings) kill a bull elk with a spear, on TV. What are your thoughts on spear hunting? 2009

  • “Princess!” shouted Mist she had been fighting of more Goblin spear holders

    Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » David’s Second Review Forum 2009

  • Anyone who can bring down a mammoth with a spear is pretty damn advanced in my book and I consider them an ancestor in spirit if not DNA.

    Cloning Neanderthals Dave Hurteau 2009

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