Word.ws English Dictionary

'spire

'spire verb: apheretic form of inspire.

Verb

'spire (third-person singular simple present 'spires, present participle 'spiring, simple past and past participle 'spired)

  1. (dialectal, informal) Apheretic form of inspire.
    • One old fellow name John been a run-awayer for four years and de patterrollers tries all dey tricks, but dey can't cotch him. Dey wants him bad, 'cause it 'spire other slaves to run away if he stays a-loose.1941, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, volume 16, Washington, DC: Library of Congress, →OCLC, page 248

Forms of 'spire

third-person singular present'spires
present participle'spiring
past participle'spired
past'spired

Questions about 'spire

What does 'spire mean?
'spire means apheretic form of inspire.
What part of speech is 'spire?
'spire is a verb.
What is the past tense of 'spire?
The past tense of 'spire is 'spired.

Words near 'spire in the dictionary

  1. 'spectable
  2. 'spected
  3. 'specting
  4. 'spects
  5. 'spensive
  6. 'spire
  7. 'spired
  8. 'spires
  9. 'spiring
  10. 'splode
  11. 'sploded

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 'spire (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “'spire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/%27spire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.