Word.ws English Dictionary

spurge

/spɜːdʒ//spɜɹdʒ/

spurge noun: any plant of the genus Euphorbia, a diverse genus of over 2,000 species.

spurge: any plant of the genus Euphorbia, a diverse genus of over 2,000 species
Image: Robert Flogaus-Faust, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

spurge (usually uncountable, plural spurges)

  1. (usually) Any plant of the genus Euphorbia, a diverse genus of over 2,000 species.
    • But cockle, spurge, according to their law / Might propagate their kind, with none to awe, / You'd think; a burr had been a treasure trove.1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section X
    • A compound of spurge, cardamom, cinnamon of Mecca, pellitory, ginger, nettle seed is an Arab specific for sexual weakness.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 228
  2. (usually) Any plant of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae.
    Synonyms:
    euphorbia
  3. (usually) A plant resembling those in genus Euphorbia in some aspect of its appearance.

Verb

spurge (third-person singular simple present spurges, present participle spurging, simple past and past participle spurged)

  1. (intransitive) To emit foam; to froth; said of the emission of yeast from beer during fermentation.
    • The body's somthing noysome: 'tis a stale one; / Good troth it spurgeth very monstrously.1661, W. Cartwright, Siedge

spurge meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Persian

spurge in Tamil

any plant of the genus Euphorbia
கள்ளி kaḷḷi

spurge in Kannada

ಬೊಂತೆಕಳ್ಳಿ, ಬೊಂತೆಗಳ್ಳಿ

spurge in Persian

any plant of the genus Euphorbia
شبرم šebram

Examples of spurge in a sentence

  • The coast spurge is usually found on dry sites on both sandy and rocky coastlines.
  • Spotted spurge can grow well in slightly dry, gravelly, or sandy soils.
  • Red spurge is a hardy tree grown for its ruby-colored leaves.

All 11 example sentences with spurge

Synonyms of spurge

Forms of spurge

Noun
pluralspurges
Verb
third-person singular presentspurges
present participlespurging
past participlespurged
pastspurged

Origin of spurge

Inherited from Middle English spurge, from Old French espurge, from espurgier (“to purge”), from Latin expurgo (“to purge”); the bitter milky sap of these plants was formerly used as a purgative.

Uncertain, but likely closely related to etymology 1, thus a doublet of purge.

Words formed from spurge

Phrases with spurge

Words that rhyme with spurge

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spurge

What does spurge mean?
Spurge means any plant of the genus Euphorbia, a diverse genus of over 2,000 species.
What is spurge in Tamil?
Spurge in Tamil is கள்ளி (kaḷḷi). See Spurge meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is spurge?
Spurge can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce spurge?
Spurge is pronounced /spɜːdʒ/ (UK).
What is the plural of spurge?
The plural of spurge is spurges.

Words near spurge in the dictionary

  1. spurfowls
  2. spurgall
  3. spurgalled
  4. spurgalling
  5. spurgalls
  6. spurge
  7. spurge laurel
  8. spurge olive
  9. spurge-laurel
  10. spurged
  11. Spurgeon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spurge (page history and authors); spurge (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spurge.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Qwertygiy-spurge.wav.

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