spur

Definitions

• A rigid implement, often roughly y-shaped, that is fixed to one's heel for the purpose of prodding a horse. Often worn by, and emblematic of, the cowboy or the knight.
• A jab given with the spurs.
• Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.
• An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.
• Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.
• Roots, tree roots.
• A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.
• A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale to strip off the blubber.
• (carpentry) A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.
• (architecture) The short wooden buttress of a post.
• (architecture) A projection from the round base of a column, occupying the angle of a square plinth upon which the base rests, or bringing the bottom bed of the base to a nearly square form. It is generally carved in leafage.
• Ergotized rye or other grain.
• A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.
• (shipbuilding) A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.
• (shipbuilding) A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.
• (mining) A branch of a vein.
• A very short branch line of a railway line.
• (botany) A short thin side shoot from a branch, especially one that bears fruit or, in conifers, the shoots that bear the leaves.