Forms: 1, 4–5 spir, 3– spire, 4, 6–7 spier (7 spiere), 5–6 spyre. [OE. spír, = WFris. spier, NFris. spîr, MDu. and Du. spier, MLG. spîr, spyer, spyr, MHG. spîr (G. spier, spiere), Da. spire, MSw. and Sw. spira, sprout, shoot, sprig, etc. Cf. SPEAR sb.2]
1. A stalk or stem of a plant, esp. one of a tall and slender growth. Now rare.
a. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 266. Wiþ lungen adle, hindberʓean leaf & hreodes spir.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 1603. There was in pycture … Our lorde apperynge in busshe flammynge as fyre, And nothynge therof brent, lefe, tree, nor spyre.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 20. Dockes have a brode lefe, and diuers high spyres, and very small sede in the toppe.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 23. Raddishes eat the more pleasantly, if their leaues be cropt off before the master stem or spire be growne big.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 136. I observed the wheat on the ground, and that the first, or capital branch, consisted of an upright spire, between two leaves.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 414. Like the green leaves of corn, which protect and assist to draw up nourishment into the spire.
1815. Shelley, Alastor, 528. Tall spires of windlestrae Threw their thin shadows down the rugged slope.
fig. 1865. Ruskin, Sesame, ii. 194. Among those sweet living things, whose new courage … is starting up in strength of goodly spire.
b. The tapering top of a tree; the portion of the main stem which shoots up above the branches.
1657. G. Thornley, Daphnis & Chloe, 162. One Apple hang’d upon the very top of the Spire of the Tree.
1820. Shelley, Orpheus, 27. There stands a group of cypresses; not such As, with a graceful spire and stirring life, Pierce the pure heaven.
1875. Laslett, Timber & Timber Trees, 72. No tops to be received, except the spire and such other top or limb as may be grown on the main piece.
c. A flower-spike.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., lxxxiii. Bring orchis, bring the foxglove spire.
1852. M. Arnold, Empedocles, I. ii. 4. The giant spires of yellow bloom Of the sun-loving gentian.
1874. Symonds, Sk. Italy & Greece (1898), I. viii. 169. Meadows, where … asphodel is pale with spires of faintest rose.
2. (Now south or s.w. dial.) a. collect. Reeds; reed-like coarse tall-growing plants or sedges (see later quots.).
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 18. In ore waste þicke hegge, Imeind mid spire & grene segge.
1388. Wyclif, Exod. ii. 3. [She] puttide hym forth in a place of spier of the brenke of the flood. Ibid., Isaiah xviii. 1, margin. Papirus is a kynde of spier.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 514. The common Reede or spier groweth in standing waters…. This plante is called in … English Common Pole Reede, Spier, or Cane Reede.
1796. W. H. Marshall, Rur. Econ. W. Eng., I. 330. Spire (Arundo), reed.
1856. Bromefield, Flora Vect., 583. Common Sea-reed … is known only as Spire, a term applied by the islanders to all the larger-spiked and close-panicled grasses, Carices and Typhæ.
1865. R. Hunt, Pop. Rom. W. Eng. (1871), Ser. I. 201. Before the reed-like plant called by the present inhabitants the spire was planted.
b. A single plant of this; a reed.
1388. Wyclif, Job viii. 11. Whether a rusche may lyue with out moysture? ethir a spier [v.r. reed] may wexe with out watir?
1847. Halliw., Spires, is chiefly applied to the tall species of sedge…; it is likewise used of the tall leaves of the common yellow iris…. Isle of Wight.
1863. J. R. Wise, New Forest, 287. The phrase ‘spire-bed’ … is very common, meaning a particular field, near where the ‘spires’ grow.
c. Mining. (See quot.)
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2276/2. Spire, the tube carrying the train to the charge in the blast-hole. Also called the reed or rush, as the spires of grass or rushes are used for the purpose.
3. A young or tender shoot or sprout; esp. the rudimentary shoot of a seed; the acrospire of grain; = SPEAR sb.2 2.
13[?]. in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr., LXXXI. 83/18. Whon greyne of whete is cast in grounde … þerof springeþ spires I-nowe.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1335. As an oke comyth of a littil spire.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xi. (Bodl. MS.). Þe spire of þe lely springeþ oute of the side of þe cloue and nouȝt oute of þee ende.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., III. 1034. When their spir up goon is,… Let plaunte hem ther.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 64–5. The Grains of Barly being moistned with water,… the fermentation and heat presently appears,… and therefore it shoots forth into Spires.
1670. Evelyn, Sylva (ed. 2), 83. [They] place the ends of them in water ’till towards the Spring, by which season they will have contracted a swelling spire or knurr.
1766. Compl. Farmer, s.v. Malt, At this time, the spire should be near piercing through the outer skin of the barley.
1826. Art of Brewing (ed. 2), 7. Nature intended this for the future support of the spire.
fig. 1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. IX. 100. Sitthe to spille speche þat spyre is of grace.
b. A blade or shoot of grass, etc.; = SPEAR sb.2 2 b. (Freq. c. 1660–1720; now rare.)
1646. Bp. Hall, Balm Gilead (1650), 372. What if there were as many Devils in the air, as there are spires of grasse on the earth?
1675. Traherne, Chr. Ethics, 60. Every grain of dust,… every spire of grass is wholly illuminated thereby.
1701. Stanhope, Pious Breathings, III. v. (1704), 182. [Thy hand] only could produce the least spire of grass.
1710. Congreve, Ovid’s Art Love, III. Wks. III. 1043.
| New Milk, or pointed Spires of Flax, when green, | |
| Will Ink supply, and Letters mark unseen. |
1724. Welton, Disc., 433. Look but upon a spire of grass.
1849. Brownson, Wks., VII. 18. We know that a spire of grass grows, but how it grows we know not.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, vi. 204. The Wrentail … may be seen in the fine sunny weather sunning itself on the long spires of grass.
c. U.S. Similarly of hair; = SPEAR sb.2 2 c.
1868. Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women, xv. I’d do as much for our Jimmy any day if I had a spire of hair worth selling.
4. A long slender and tapering growth in a plant:
a. The awn or beard of grain.
1530. Palsgr., 274. Spyre of corne, barbe du ble.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., 234. Spires, the horns of barley.
† b. The stigma of the crocus, from which saffron is obtained. Obs.–1
1633. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit., 319. The saffron yields an odoriferous and cordial spire, whiles both the flower and the root are unpleasing.
5. An elongated or pointed shoot or tongue of fire or flame.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 102. And when he come done to þe pepull,… two spyres of fyre stoden out of hys hed lyke two hornes.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid, II. (1626), 27. Parnassus grones beneath two flaming spires.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 223. On each hand the flames Drivn backward slope their pointing spires.
1812. Examiner, 20 Sept., 597/1. Spires of smoking flame.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 993. If the gas be copious, the flame elongates into a sharp spire.
1877. E. R. Conder, Bas. Faith, ix. 383. Man aspires. An immense instinct in his nature points upward, like a spire of flame.
6. A conical, tapering, pointed body or part of something; a sharp point.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. Defin., They are lyke in foorme to two such cantles ioyned togither…: or els it is called a rounde spire, or stiple fourme. Ibid., A square spire.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. (Arb.), 108. Of the Spire or Taper called Pyramis.
1632. G. Sandys, Ovid, I. 22. The whole skie being all the night long in the beames of the Sun (that little spire, the shadowe of the Earth excepted).
1658. trans. Porta’s Nat. Magick, XIX. v. 393. Make … [a] vessel in the fashion of a Tunnel, or a round Pyramis;… let the spire of it … be open.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IX. 386. The narrow’r end I sharpen’d to a spire.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, IV. 11. Icicles … So stainless, that their white and glittering spires Tinge not the moon’s pure beam.
1885. J. L. Allen, in Harper’s Mag., April, 703. She … directed the capping of her hemp-stacks till the spires were … symmetric.
b. A branch or prong of a deer’s horn. (Cf. SPEER sb.2) Also fig.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 119. I haue seene the hornes to haue seauen spires or braunches. Ibid., 124. At one yeare old they haue nothing but small bunches…; at three yeares they grow forked into two spicres.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., I. vi. Haughty prelates with their forked mitres,… instead of healing up the gashes of the Church,… fall to gore one another with their sharp spires.
c. A metal spike or rod. rare.
c. 1710. Celia Fiennes, Diary (1888), 52. A little wall of a yard High of free Stone very ffine wrought, on which are to be Iron railes and spires.
1750. in D. Gilbert, Paroch. Hist. Cornwall (1838), III. 430. One of those rocks … with an iron spire at the top thereof.
7. A tall, slender, sharp-pointed summit, peak, rock or column.
1586. Whitney, Choice Emblems, 1. A mightie Spyre, whose toppe dothe pierce the skie.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. 202. About an Harquebuz-shotte from Matarea is a spire of great height like to that at Rome.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 577. The Ægyptians … speake much of these two Pyramides, the mighty spires and steeples whereof … do arise out of the very water.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 22. Mæottis rises very high with a Peake or Pyramidall Spire.
1749. Phil. Trans., XLVI. 269. The whole Surface of the Rock shall rise into Points or Spires.
1833. Tennyson, Dream Fair Wom., xlvii. All night the splinter’d crags that wall the dell With spires of silver shine. Ibid. (1847), Princess, IV. 262. Like a spire of land that stands apart Cleft from the main.
1855. Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 143. The spires, or needle-shaped detached rocks, called in Switzerland aiguilles.
b. poet. A pyramidal heap or pile of something.
1818. Keats, Endym., I. 222. On the shrine he heaped a spire Of teeming sweets, enkindling sacred fire.
8. A tall structure rising from a tower, roof, etc., and terminating in a slender point; esp. the tapering portion of the steeple of a cathedral or church, usually carried to a great height and constituting one of the chief architectural features of the building. (Cf. SPEAR sb.2 1.)
So MLG. spyre (1392), Sw. spira, Da. and Norw. spir.
1596. Lodge, Wits Miserie, B iiij b. His beard is cut like the spier of Grantham steeple.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 739. An high Towre in the middest and two Spires at the West end.
1643. Baker, Chron., Eliz., 117. The Spire of the Cathedrall Church of Pauls being … two hundred and sixty [feet] from the Square Steeple where it was placed.
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arc., I. 215. The Temples crown’d With golden Spires.
1727. Swift, Baucis & Philemon, Wks. 1755, III. II. 33. The chimney widen’d, and grew higher, Became a steeple with a spire.
1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, VII. v. The steeple, which has a spire to it, is placed in the middle of the church.
1815. Scott, Guy M., iv. The spire of a church … indicated the situation of a village.
1866. M. Arnold, Thyrsis, iii. And that sweet city with her dreaming spires,… Lovely all times she lies, lovely to-night.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq., v. I. 310. Queenly Lübeck had not yet begun to cover her peninsula with her stately spires, her soaring gateways.
transf. 1878. Stevenson, Inland Voy., 77. My consciousness should be diffused abroad in all the forest, and give a common heart to that assembly of green spires.
9. fig. The highest point, summit or top of something.
1600. J. Dowland, 2nd Bk. Songs, ii. B ij b. From the highest spire of contentment, my fortune is throwne.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. ix. 24. To silence that, Which to the spire, and top of prayses vouch’d, Would seeme but modest.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., V. vi. § 17. 36. The Romanes that stroue to mount hie on the spires of their intended glory.
10. attrib. and Comb. a. In senses 1–3, as spire-end; spire-bed, mint, reed, dial. (see quots.). Also SPIRE-GRASS.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 207. The germen, or the spire-end of the barley.
1863. Prior, Plant-n., Spear-mint or Spire-mint, from its spiry, not capitate inflorescence. Ibid., Spires, or Spire-reed, the pool reed, Arundo phragmites.
1863. J. R. Wise, New Forest, Gloss., Spire-bed, a place where the ‘spires,’ that is, the reed-canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea), grow.
b. In sense 8, as spire-growth, -top; spire-light, a window in a spire; spire-roof, a steeply sloping roof rising up into a spire. See also SPIRE-STEEPLE.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 356. The cathedrals of Worms and Gelnhausen … exhibit many varieties of spires, or rather spire-roofs, springing up from gables at their base.
1846. Archaeol. Jrnl., II. 3. The spire itself, at about half its height, is encircled by spire-lights.
1853. C. Wickes, Illustr. Spires & Towers Eng. (title-p.), The Architecture of the Middle Ages, and its Spire-Growth.
1882. Stevenson, New Arab. Nts., II. 144. The flag of England, fluttering on the spire-top, grew ever fainter and fainter.
c. With past pples. or adjs. (chiefly instrumental and similative), as spire-adorned, -crowned, -shaped, -topped adjs., spire-like adj.
1804. J. Grahame, Sabbath (1808), 32. He toiled up the spire-topt hill.
1840. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., III. 32/1. This … is covered by a very steep, or spire-shaped roof.
1879. Will Carleton, Farm Ballads, 87. The turreted, spire-adorned city.
1885. E. P. Warren & Cleverly, Wanderings ‘Beetle,’ 56. Rising almost sheer from the river, it [the famous Roche à Bayard] soars to its spire-like peak.
1893. Daily News, 27 April, 5/4. Each corner is adorned with a spire-crowned pavilion.
