spear

Meanings

Noun

• A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.
• A soldier armed with such a weapon; a spearman.
• A lance with barbed prongs, used by fishermen to retrieve fish.
• An illegal maneuver using the end of a hockey stick to strike into another hockey player.
• In professional wrestling, a running tackle in which the wrestler's shoulder is driven into the opponent's midsection.
• A shoot, as of grass; a spire.
• The feather of a horse.
• The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.
• A long, thin strip from a vegetable.

Verb

• To pierce with a spear.
• To penetrate or strike with, or as if with, any long narrow object; to make a thrusting motion that catches an object on the tip of a long device.
• To tackle an opponent by ramming into them with one's helmet.
• To shoot into a long stem, as some plants do.

Adjective

• Male.
• Pertaining to male family members.

Related

Opposite words

• distaff

Origin

• From Middle English spere, sperre, spear, from Old English spere, from Proto-West Germanic *speru, from Proto-Germanic *speru, from Proto-Indo-European *sperH-.
• See also West Frisian spear, Dutch speer, German Speer, Old Norse spjǫr, *sparrô, Middle Dutch sparre ("rafter"), Old Norse sparri ("spar, rafter"), sperra; also Latin sparus ("short spear"), Albanian ferrë ("thorn, thornbush").