Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Spear

Spear (spēr), n. [OE. spere, AS. spere; akin to D. & G. speer, OS. & OHS. sper, Icel. spjör, pl., Dan. spær, L. sparus.] 1. 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. [See Illust. of Spearhead.] "A sharp ground spear." Chaucer.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Micah iv. 3.

2. Fig.: A spearman. Sir W. Scott.

3. A sharp-pointed instrument with barbs, used for stabbing fish and other animals.

4. A shoot, as of grass; a spire.

5. The feather of a horse. See Feather, n., 4.

6. The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.

Spear foot, the off hind foot of a horse. — Spear grass. (Bot.) (a) The common reed. See Reed, n., 1. (b) meadow grass. See under Meadow. — Spear hand, the hand in which a horseman holds a spear; the right hand. Crabb. — Spear side, the male line of a family. Lowell. — Spear thistle (Bot.), the common thistle (Cnicus lanceolatus).

Spear, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Speared; p. pr. & vb. n. Spearing.] To pierce with a spear; to kill with a spear; as, to spear a fish.

Spear, v. i. To shoot into a long stem, as some plants. See Spire. Mortimer.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.