spurn
UK/spɜːn//spɝn/
spurn verb: to reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
Verb
spurn (third-person singular simple present spurns, present participle spurning, simple past and past participle spurned)
- To reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
- to spurn at your most royal imagec. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
- What safe and nicely I might well delay
By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- To reject something by pushing it away with the foot.
- Me thinks I ſee kings kneeling at his feet,
And he with frowning browes and fiery lookes,
Spurning their crownes from off their captiue heads.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC... - I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Me thinks I ſee kings kneeling at his feet,
- To waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity)
- Marouane Chamakh then spurned a great chance to kill the game off when he ran onto Andrey Arshavin's lofted through ball but shanked his shot horribly across the face of goal.2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport
- To kick or toss up the heels.
- oft' the ſudden Gale
Ruffles the Tide, and ſhifts the dang'rous Sail,
[…]
The drunken Chairman in the Kennel ſpurns,
The Glaſſes ſhatters, and his Charge o'erturns.[1716], [John] Gay, “Book II. Of Walking the Streets by Day.”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], →OCLC, page 46
- oft' the ſudden Gale
Noun
spurn (plural spurns)
- An act of spurning; a scornful rejection.
- A kick; a blow with the foot.
- What defence can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn?1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC
- Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
- The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- The insolence of office and the spurns
- A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.
spurn meaning in Marathi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
spurn in Marathi
- to spurn, rebuff, reject
- धुडकावणे dhuḍkāvṇe
- to spurn
- फेटाळणे pheṭāḷṇe
spurn in Urdu
- لات مارنا, مسترد کرنا, رد کرنا, ٹھکرا دینا
spurn in Bengali
- অবজ্ঞাসহ প্রত্যাখ্যান করা
spurn in Malayalam
- ചവിട്ടിത്തെറിപ്പിക്കുക, പുച്ഛിച്ചുതളളുക, നിസ്സാരമാക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- spurn in Kannada
- ತಿರಸ್ಕರಿಸು, ಧಿಕ್ಕರಿಸು, ನಿರಾಕರಿಸು, ದೂಡು
- spurn in Sanskrit
- स्फुरति sphurati
Examples of spurn in a sentence
- Domestics will pay a more ready and cheerful service, when they find themselves not spurned, because fortune has laid them below the level of others, at their master's feet.1693, [John Locke], “§111”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:
- She will spurn a Tyrone Power/A Van Johnson or a Gable/For a Cenek Kottnauer/Or a man like Dr.1949 November, Nat Halper, “Pronunciation”, in Chess Review:
Forms of spurn
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | spurns |
| present participle | spurning |
| past participle | spurned |
| past | spurned |
| Noun | |
| plural | spurns |
Origin of spurn
From Middle English spurnen, spornen, from Old English spurnan (“to strike against, kick, spurn, reject; stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *spurnaną (“to tread, kick, knock out”), from Proto-Indo-European *sperH-. Cognate with Scots spurn (“to strike, push, kick”), German spornen (“to spur on”), Icelandic sporna, spyrna (“to kick”), Latin spernō (“despise, distain, scorn”). Related to spur and spread.
Words formed from spurn
Phrases with spurn
Words that rhyme with spurn
Questions about spurn
- What does spurn mean?
- Spurn means to reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
- What is spurn in Marathi?
- Spurn in Marathi is धुडकावणे (dhuḍkāvṇe), फेटाळणे (pheṭāḷṇe). See Spurn meaning in Marathi.
- How do you use spurn in a sentence?
- Domestics will pay a more ready and cheerful service, when they find themselves not spurned, because fortune has laid them below the level of others, at their master's feet.
- What part of speech is spurn?
- Spurn can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce spurn?
- Spurn is pronounced /spɜːn/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of spurn?
- The past tense of spurn is spurned.
Words near spurn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spurn (page history and authors); धुडकावणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); spurn (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spurn (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spurn (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); spurn (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: en-us-spurn.ogg.
Cite this entry: “spurn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spurn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.