Word.ws English Dictionary

spurring

spurring is the present participle and gerund of spur.

Meaning of spur

Verb

spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)

  1. (transitive) To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.
    • Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head! Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood; Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. (transitive) To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object
    • My desire / (More sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth...c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. (transitive) To put spurs on.
    • to spur boots
  4. (intransitive) To press forward; to travel in great haste.
  5. To form a spur (senses 17-18 of the noun)
    • It spurs off the Robin Hood line, providing ten miles of single-line test track with a three-mile double section, capable of testing up to 75mph.2021 June 16, Andrew Mourant, “Plans for new test centre remain on track: Testing for rolling stock and infrastructure”, in RAIL, number 933, page 42

See all 29 meanings of spur

Noun

spurring (plural spurrings)

  1. An application of the spurs to a horse.
    • On arriving at a sand plain, my friend's joy burst forth in sundry useless checks and spurrings of his steed, impatient of which the horse dashed forward, heedless of the cries and struggles of his awkward rider to bring him to a halt!1831, The Spirit of the English Magazines, page 169

Forms of spurring

pluralspurrings

Phrases with spurring

Questions about spurring

What does spurring mean?
Spurring means an application of the spurs to a horse.
What is spurring the present participle and gerund of?
Spurring is the present participle and gerund of spur.
What part of speech is spurring?
Spurring is a noun.
What is the plural of spurring?
The plural of spurring is spurrings.

Words near spurring in the dictionary

  1. spurreys
  2. spurrial
  3. spurrier
  4. spurriers
  5. spurries
  6. spurring
  7. spurring on
  8. spurrings
  9. spurrite
  10. spurrites
  11. Spurrs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spurring (page history and authors); spur (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.

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