Spring

v. i. [imp. SPRUNG (SPRANG, obsolescent); p. p. SPRUNG; p. pr. & vb. n. SPRINGING.] [A-S. springan, sprincan, O. H. Ger. springan, N. H. Ger. & D. springen, Icel. & Sw. springa, Dan. springe.]

1Sense 1. To leap; to bound; to jump.

The mountain stag that springs From height to height, and bounds along the plains. Philips.

2Sense 2. To issue with speed and violence; to move with activity.

And sudden light Sprung through the vaulted roof. Dryden.

3Sense 3. To start or rise suddenly from a covert. “Watchful as fowlers when their game will spring.” Otway.

4Sense 4. To fly back; to start; as, a bow, when bent, springs back by its elastic power.

5Sense 5. To bend or wind from a straight direction or plane surface; to warp, or become warped; as, a piece of timber, or a plank, sometimes springs in seasoning.

6Sense 6. 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;—usually or often followed by up, forth, or out. “The teeth of the young not sprung.” Ray.

To satisfy the desolate . . . ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth. Job xxxviii. 27.

Much more good of sin shall spring. Milton.

Do not blast my springing hopes. Rowe.

O, spring to light; auspicious Babe, be born. Pope.

7Sense 7. To issue or proceed, as from a parent or ancestor; to result, as from a cause, motive, reason, or principle.

They found new hope to spring Out of despair. Milton.

8Sense 8. To grow; to thrive.

What makes all this, but Jupiter the king? At whose command we perish, and we spring. Dryden.

To spring at, to leap toward; to attempt to reach by a leap.—To spring forth, to leap out; to rush out.—To spring in, to rush in; to enter with a leap or in haste.—To spring on or upon, to leap on; to rush on with haste or violence; to assault.

v. t. 1. To cause to spring up; to start or rouse, as game; to cause to rise from the earth, or from a covert; as, to spring a pheasant.

2Sense 2. To produce quickly or unexpectedly.

The nurse, surprised with fright, Starts up and leaves her bed, and springs a light. Dryden.

3Sense 3. To contrive, or to produce, or propose on a sudden; to produce unexpectedly; to start.

The friends to the cause sprang a new project. Swift.

4Sense 4. To cause to explode; as, to spring a mine.

5Sense 5. To burst; to cause to open; as, to spring a leak.

6Sense 6. To crack or split; to bend or strain so as to weaken; as, to spring a mast or a yard.

7Sense 7. To cause to close suddenly, as the parts of a trap; as, to spring a trap.

8Sense 8. To bend by force, as something stiff or strong; 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.

To spring a butt (Naut.), to loosen the end of a plank in a ship's bottom.—To spring a fence, to leap a fence. Thomson.—To spring a leak (Naut.), to commence leaking; to begin to leak.—To spring an arch (Arch.), to set off, begin, or commence an arch from an abutment or pier.—To spring a rattle, to cause a rattle to sound. See WATCHMAN.—To spring the luff (Naut.), to yield to the helm, and sail nearer to the wind than before;—said of a vessel. Mar. Dict.

n. [A.-S. spring, a fountain, a leap.]

1Sense 1. A leap; a bound; a jump, as of an animal.

The prisoner, with a spring, from prison broke. Dryden.

2Sense 2. A flying back; the resilience of a body recovering its former state by its elasticity; as, the spring of a bow.

3Sense 3. Elastic power or force.

Heavens! what a spring was in his arm! Dryden.

4Sense 4. An elastic body, as a steel rod, plate, or coil; a mass, or strip, of India rubber; a body of compressed air, &c.;—used for various mechanical purposes, as receiving and imparting power, regulating motion, measuring weight or other force, diminishing concussion, and the like.

☞ The principal varieties of springs used in machinery are the spiral spring (Fig. a), the coiled or watch spring (Fig. b), the volute spring (Fig. c), the elliptic spring (Fig. d), the half-elliptic spring (Fig. e), the C spring (Fig. f), the strut spring (Fig. g) (the foregoing are usually made of steel, but sometimes of brass), the India-rubber spring (Fig. h), and the atmospheric spring. Fig. e is the half-elliptic spring as employed on a locomotive. The weight resting upon the frame, e, is transferred through the spring-hangers or stirrups, c, c, to the spring, b, which is held together by the spring-strap, a, and rests upon the axle-box, n, and the axle, h.

5Sense 5. Any source of supply; especially, the source from which a stream proceeds; a fountain. “A secret spring of spiritual joy.” Bentley. “The sacred spring whence right and honor stream.” Davies.

6Sense 6. Any active power; that by which action, or motion, is produced or propagated; cause; origin.

Like nature, letting down the springs of life. Dryden.

Our author shuns by vulgar springs to move The hero’s glory. Pope.

7Sense 7. That which springs, or is originated, from a source; as, (a.) A race. [Obs.]

Who on all the human spring Conferred confusion. Chapman.

(b.) A youth; a springal. [Obs.] Spenser. (c.) A shoot; a plant; a young tree; also, a grove of trees; woodland. [Obs.] Spenser.

8Sense 8. That which causes one to spring; specifically, a tune. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

9Sense 9. The season of the year when plants begin to vegetate and rise: the vernal season, comprehending the months of March, April, and May, in the middle latitudes north of the equator. “The green leaf of the new-come spring.” Shak.

10Sense 10. (Naut.) (a.) A crack, or fissure, in a mast or yard, running obliquely or transversely. (b.) A rope by which a ship is held at one part, as the bow or quarter, in order to keep her in a particular position, or to turn her in a short compass.

Spring-box, the box or barrel in a watch or other piece of mechanism in which the spring is contained. — Spring-hook (Locomotive Engines), one of the hooks fixing the driving-wheel spring to the frame. Weale. — Spring-pin, an iron rod fitted between the springs and the axle-boxes, to sustain and regulate the pressure on the axles. Weale. — Spring of pork, the lower part of the fore quarter, which is divided from the neck, and has the leg and foot without the shoulder. [Obs.] Nares.

Sir, pray hand the spring of pork to me. Gayton.