spring Meaning & Definition
What Does Spring Mean?
Spring is a verb that means To move or burst forth. It is also used to mean To appear. As a noun, it means An act of springing: a leap, a jump. As a noun, it means The season of the year in temperate regions in which plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life, variously reckoned as.
Word Facts for Spring
| Part of speech | verb, noun |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | /ˈspɹɪŋ/ |
| Synonyms | recoil, give and form |
| Plural | springs |
| Verb forms | springs, springing, sprang, sprung |
Spring Definition (Verb)
- To move or burst forth.
The boat sprang a leak and began to sink.
- To appear.
- To grow, to sprout. To mature.
- To mature.
- To arise, to come into existence.
- To enliven.
He hit the gas and the car sprang to life.
- To move with great speed and energy.
Deer spring with their hind legs, using their front hooves to steady themselves.
- To be born, descend, or originate from
He sprang from peasant stock.
- To rise in social position or military rank, to be promoted.
- To cause to spring (all senses).
To cause to work or open by sudden application of pressure.
He sprang the trap.
- To cause to work or open by sudden application of pressure.
He sprang the trap.
- To leap over.
- To breed with, to impregnate.
- To wet, to moisten.
- To burst into pieces, to explode, to shatter.
- To go off.
- To crack.
- To come upon and flush out.
- To catch in an illegal act or compromising position.
- To begin.
- To put bad money into circulation.
- To tell, to share.
Sorry to spring it on you like this but I've been offered another job.
- To free from imprisonment, especially by facilitating an illegal escape.
His lieutenants hired a team of miners to help spring him.
- To be free of imprisonment, especially by illegal escape.
- To secure a person's release from custody; to free or bail out of jail.
- To build, to form the initial curve of.
They sprung an arch over the lintel.
- To extend, to curve.
The arches spring from the front posts.
- To turn a vessel using a spring attached to its anchor cable.
- To pay or spend a certain sum, to yield.
- To raise an offered price.
- Alternative form of sprain.
- Alternative form of strain.
- To act as a spring: to strongly rebound.
- To equip with springs, especially to equip with a suspension.
- to inspire, to motivate.
- To deform owing to excessive pressure, to become warped; to intentionally deform in order to position and then straighten in place.
A piece of timber sometimes springs in seasoning.
- To swell with milk or pregnancy.
- To sound, to play.
- To find or get enough food during springtime.
Spring as a Noun
- An act of springing: a leap, a jump.
- The season of the year in temperate regions in which temperatures and daylight hours rise, and plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life.
Spring is the time of the year most species reproduce.
- The period from the moment of vernal equinox (around March 21 in the Northern Hemisphere) to the moment of the summer solstice (around June 21); the equivalent periods reckoned in other cultures and calendars.
Chinese New Year always occurs in January or February but is called the "Spring Festival" throughout East Asia because it is reckoned as the beginning of their spring.
- The three months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere.
I spent my spring holidays in Morocco.
- The time of something's growth; the early stages of some process.
A period of political liberalization and democratization.
Arab Spring
- A period of political liberalization and democratization.
Arab Spring
- Someone with ivory or peach skin tone and eyes and hair that are not extremely dark, seen as best suited to certain colors of clothing.
- Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly
A spray or body of water springing from the ground.
This beer was brewed with pure spring water.
- A spray or body of water springing from the ground.
This beer was brewed with pure spring water.
- The rising of the sea at high tide.
- Ellipsis of spring tide, the especially high tide shortly after full and new moons.
- An elastic mechanical part or device in any shape (e.g., flat, curved, coiled), made of flexible material (usually spring steel) that exerts force and attempts to spring back when bent, compressed, or stretched.
We jumped so hard the bed springs broke.
- A line from a vessel's end or side to its anchor cable used to diminish or control its movement.
- A line laid out from a vessel's end to the opposite end of an adjacent vessel or mooring to diminish or control its movement.
You should put a couple of springs onto the jetty to stop the boat moving so much.
- A race, a lineage.
- A youth.
- A shoot, a young tree.
- A grove of trees; a forest.
- A group of teal.
- An erection of the penis. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- A crack which has sprung up in a mast, spar, or a plank or seam.
- Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back, particularly
Elasticity: the property of a body springing back to its original form after compression, stretching, etc.
the spring of a bow
- Elasticity: the property of a body springing back to its original form after compression, stretching, etc.
the spring of a bow
- Elastic energy, power, or force.
- The source from which an action or supply of something springs.
- Something which causes others or another to spring forth or spring into action, particularly A cause, a motive, etc. A lively piece of music.
- A cause, a motive, etc.
- A lively piece of music.
Verb
- To spend the springtime somewhere.
Verb
- To weaken, as a joint, ligament, or muscle, by sudden and excessive exertion, as by wrenching; to overstrain, or stretch injuriously, but without luxation
to sprain one's ankle
Noun
- The season of the year in temperate regions in which plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life, variously reckoned as
Spring is the time of the year most species reproduce.
- The time of something's growth; the early stages of some process.
- Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly
- An erection of the penis.
- Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back, particularly
- Something which causes others or another to spring forth or spring into action, particularly
Verb
- To burst forth.
- (of beards) To grow.
- To cause to burst forth.
- To make wet, to moisten.
- (usually with "to" or "up") To rise suddenly, (of tears) to well up.
The documentary made tears spring to their eyes.
- (now usually with "apart" or "open") To burst into pieces, to explode, to shatter.
- To cause to explode, to set off, to detonate.
- (usually perfective) To crack.
- To have something crack.
- To cause to crack.
- To surprise by sudden or deft action.
- (of arches) To build, to form the initial curve of.
They sprung an arch over the lintel.
- (of arches, with "from") To extend, to curve.
The arches spring from the front posts.
- To raise a vessel's sheer.
- (cobblery) To raise a last's toe.
- To pay or spend a certain sum, to cough up.
- To equip with springs, especially (of vehicles) to equip with a suspension.
- To provide spring or elasticity
- (now rare) To reach maturity, to be fully grown.
- (chiefly of cows) To swell with milk or pregnancy.
- (of rattles) To sound, to play.
Verb
- To hold tightly, to clasp.
- To apply a force or forces to by stretching out.
Relations between the United States and Guatemala traditionally have been close, although at times strained by human rights and civil/military issues.
- To damage by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force.
The gale strained the timbers of the ship.
- To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as when bending a beam.
- To exert or struggle (to do something), especially to stretch (one's senses, faculties etc.) beyond what is normal or comfortable.
Sitting in back, I strained to hear the speaker.
- To stretch beyond its proper limit; to do violence to, in terms of intent or meaning.
to strain the law in order to convict an accused person
- To separate solid from liquid by passing through a strainer or colander
- To percolate; to be filtered.
water straining through a sandy soil
- To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain.
- To urge with importunity; to press.
to strain a petition or invitation
- Hug somebody; to hold somebody tightly.
Verb
- To beget, generate (of light), engender, copulate (both of animals and humans), lie with, be born, come into the world.
A man straineth, liveth, then dieth.
Synonyms of Spring
Spring in a Sentence
The boat sprang a leak and began to sink.
He hit the gas and the car sprang to life.
Deer spring with their hind legs, using their front hooves to steady themselves.
He sprang from peasant stock.
He sprang the trap.
Sorry to spring it on you like this but I've been offered another job.
His lieutenants hired a team of miners to help spring him.
They sprung an arch over the lintel.
The arches spring from the front posts.
A piece of timber sometimes springs in seasoning.
He sprang in the slat.
Spring is the time of the year most species reproduce.
You can visit me in the spring, when the weather is bearable.
Chinese New Year always occurs in January or February but is called the "Spring Festival" throughout East Asia because it is reckoned as the beginning of their spring.
I spent my spring holidays in Morocco.
The spring issue will be out next week.
Arab Spring
Prague Spring
This beer was brewed with pure spring water.
We jumped so hard the bed springs broke.
You should put a couple of springs onto the jetty to stop the boat moving so much.
the spring of a bow
to sprain one's ankle
The documentary made tears spring to their eyes.
Relations between the United States and Guatemala traditionally have been close, although at times strained by human rights and civil/military issues.
The gale strained the timbers of the ship.
Sitting in back, I strained to hear the speaker.
to strain the law in order to convict an accused person
water straining through a sandy soil
to strain a petition or invitation
A man straineth, liveth, then dieth.
Word Forms & Grammar
spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past sprang or sprung, past participle sprung)
spring (countable and uncountable, plural springs)
spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past and past participle springed)
Words That Rhyme With Spring
Origin of Spring
Origin 1: From Middle English springen, from Old English springan (“to spring, leap, bounce, sprout forth, emerge, spread out”), from Proto-West Germanic *springan, from Proto-Germanic *springaną (“to burst forth”), from Proto-Indo-European *spre(n)ǵʰ- (“to move, race, spring”), from *sperǵʰ- (“to hurry”).
Origin 2: Other possible cognates include Lithuanian spreñgti (“to push (in)”), Old Church Slavonic прѧсти (pręsti, “to spin, to stretch”), Latin spargere (“to sprinkle, to scatter”), Ancient Greek σπέρχω (spérkhō, “to hasten”), Sanskrit स्पृहयति (spṛháyati, “to be eager”). Some newer senses derived from the noun.
Origin 3: From Middle English spryng (“a wellspring, tide, branch, sunrise, kind of dance or blow, ulcer, snare, flock”); partly from Old English spring (“wellspring, ulcer”), from Proto-West Germanic *spring, from Proto-Germanic *springaz (“a wellspring, fount”); and partly from Old English spryng (“a jump”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprungi, from Proto-Germanic *sprungiz (“a jump”). Further senses derived from the verb and from clippings of day-spring, springtime, spring tide, etc. Its sense as the season, first attested in a work predating 1325, gradually replaced Middle English lenten, lente, from Old English lencten (“spring, Lent”) as that word became more specifically liturgical. Compare fall.
Quick Answers About Spring
Is spring a verb or a noun?
Spring is mainly used as a verb, but it can also be used as a noun.
What is another word for spring?
Close synonyms of spring are recoil, give and form. See the full list of spring synonyms and antonyms.
What is the plural of spring?
The plural of spring is springs.
What is the past tense of spring?
The past tense of spring is sprang and the past participle is sprung. The present participle is springing.