Forms: 1, 3– spring, 2, 4–7 springe; 1, 4–6 spryng(e, 3–4 sprung, 4 sprenge, 6 spreng. [OE. spring and spryng masc., formed respectively from the primary and weak grades of the stem spring-, sprang-, sprung-: see SPRING v., from which a number of the later senses are directly derived.
In OE. the simple word is comparatively rare, chiefly occurring in senses which have not survived. Sense 1 (more common in the combs. ǽ- and wyllspring, -spryng) is also that of OS. aha-, gispring, MDu. (Du.) and MLG. spring (MLG. and Du. dial. spreng), OHG. (MHG. and G. dial.) spring, sprung. In sense 13 the equivalent forms are MSw. and Da. spring, OHG. (MHG. and G.), MLG. and MSw. sprung, MDu. (Du. and WFris.), G. dial., sprong, MLG. (LG.), MSw. sprang (Sw. språng).]
I. 1. The place of rising or issuing from the ground, the source or head, of a well, stream or river; the supply of water forming such a source. Now rare.
816. in Birch, Cartul. Saxon. (1885), I. 495. Æt þæs bernes ende æt ðæs wæteres sprynge.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1314. In middes þe land he sagh a spring Of a well.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIV. xxxi. (Bodl. MS.). In þeese hiȝe mounteyns is snowe alwey,… and heedes and springes of welles and of greete ryuers.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 470. Sprynge, of a welle, scaturigo, scatebra.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Esdras xii. 47. Ye Hyest shall holde styll the sprynges of the streame agayne.
1600. E. Blount, trans. Conestaggio, 4. Great riuers, whose mouthes are knowne, but not their springs.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, II. iv. 88. At what time it is Summer in Egypt,… then is it winter at the springes of Nile.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Wars, 293. The Springs of the Well [might be] stopped, or at least intercepted.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Tides, So that entering the Mouths of Rivers, it [sc. the sea] drives back the River-waters towards their Heads, or Springs.
1815. Shelley, Alastor, 478. The sound Of the sweet brook that from the secret springs Of that dark fountain rose.
2. A flow of water rising or issuing naturally out of the earth; a similar flow obtained by boring or other artificial means.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 581. Ilc wateres springe here strengðe undede.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11699. Vnder þi rote þar es a spring, I wil þat vte þe water wring.
c. 1325. Chron. Eng., 191, in Ritson, Metr. Rom., II. 278. In four sprunges the tonnes liggeth. Ibid., 195. The tuo sprunges urneth yfere.
c. 1420. Contin. Brut, ccxxiv. 292. Þere arose a suche a … wellinge op of wateres and floodes, bothe of þe see and also of fresshe ryvers & spryngez, þat [etc.].
1483. Cath. Angl., 356. A Sprynge of water, scatebra, scatirigo.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., d j b. Being a Spring, standing, or running Water.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., II. xxi. 58. A faire fountain … either of a natural spring or artificial.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 497. There are two little Springs, the one fresh, the other somewhat brackish.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 386. It has also some Springs of good Water.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 137. For me, Health gushes from a thousand springs.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 150. If there are springs in all places,… it will be necessary to make drains at the sides.
1812. Playfair, Nat. Phil., I. 285. Springs, in which the water does not considerably change its heat from one season of the year to another.
1855. Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 200. At Vaucluse, there is a spring of water yielding from thirteen to forty thousand cubic feet … per minute.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 25. Springs of this simple character, which issue at the junction of permeable and impermeable strata, are extremely common.
fig. c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 2. Þanne delve doun … tyl þou fynde vij sprynges of watyr of grace.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. i. 72. Kennell,… whose filth and dirt Troubles the siluer Spring, where England drinkes.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. ii. 18. Streames of bloud did rayle Adowne, as if their springs of life were spent.
1696. Tate & Brady, Ps. cxliii. 10. From Mercy’s healing Spring Revive me.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 408. An ancient Legend I prepare to sing, And upward follow Fame’s immortal Spring.
1751. Chatham, Lett. Nephew, ii. 7. Drink as deep as you can of these divine springs [sc. Homer and Virgil].
1771. Encycl. Brit., I. 644. When old age approaches,… the springs of life dry up.
1818. Keats, Endym., II. 738. And then there ran Two bubbling springs of talk from their sweet lips.
1851. Maurice, Patriarchs & Law-g., vii. (1855), 145. That he should open springs in hearts hitherto ice-bound!
b. A flow of water possessing special properties, esp. of a medicinal or curative nature. Usually with various distinguishing adjs., as chalybeate, hot, mineral, thermal, warm, etc.
1787. Phil. Trans., LXXVIII. 187. About two leagues to the east of this mass I discovered a brackish mineral spring.
1800. [see THERMAL a. 1].
1819. Warden, United States, II. 176. The sweet springs, another mineral water. Ibid. At the distance of a mile are the red springs, which, like the former, have a tonic or bracing quality.
1839. De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. xv. 517. Chalybeate springs are very common.
1847. H. Miller, First Impr. Eng., xi. (1857), 189. The underground history of the mineral springs of Great Britain.
1850. Johnston’s Gen. Gazetteer, Bath, The hot springs … are saline and chalybeate.
c. pl. A place or locality having such springs to which invalids or pleasure-seekers resort.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 347. In his younger days the gentlemen who visited the springs slept in rooms hardly as good as the garrets which he lived to see occupied by footmen.
1859. Saxe, Poems (1872), 239. Pray, what do they do at the Springs?
d. transf. A jet or spray of water. rare–1.
1818. Lady Morgan, Autobiog. (1859), 111. All appeared silence and desolation; neither the grands nor petits eaux threw up their diamond springs in the sunshine.
3. fig. A source or origin of something. Also occas. without const.
a. Predicated of persons or personifications.
a. 1225. Juliana, 50. Of al þat uuel iþe world … ich am an of þe sprunges, þat hit mest of springeð.
c. 1410. Hoccleve, Mother of God, 88. Of al vertu, thow art the spryng & welle!
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. 1710. Þouȝ he [Ovid] of poetis was þe spring & welle.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XLIII. (Percy Soc.), 212. And thus I, Fame, am ever magnified,… The spryng of honour and of famous clarkes.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iii. 103. Macb. The Spring, the Head, the Fountaine of your Blood Is stopt…. Macd. Your Royall Father’s murther’d.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., John i. 9. As the Lord and Spring of Nature, he giveth all men their Intellectual Natural Light.
1709. Watts, Hymn, 1. My God, the Spring of all my Joys, The Life of my Delights.
1876. Morris, Æneid, XII. 166. Father Æneas, spring of the Roman weal.
b. In general use.
1523. Cromwell, in Merriman, Life & Lett. (1902), I. 30. Suche yerely reuenues and wellyng spryngges as [read of] treasure as shuld … be browght into this Realme.
1550. W. Lynne, Carion’s Cron., 1. That commaundemente of God is the springe and beginninge of all lawes.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 73. Theare mount Ide resteth, the springe of progenye Troian.
1612. Sylvester, Tropheis Hen. Gt., cv. This noble Spirit doth to his Spring re-mount, This Bounties Flood retireth to his Fount.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 193. I have discoursed on the African Trade, by reason it is the Spring and Parent whence the others flow.
1730. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos., Dedic. The Gothic, the common Spring of all the Western Languages of Europe.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. v. 516. It was not one spring alone of dissension which distracted the government of Madras.
1892. Westcott, Gospel of Life, 106. Language reveals the deepest springs of thought.
4. attrib. and Comb., as spring-level, -nymph, pond, -vein; spring-fed, watered, adjs.; spring-branch U.S., a brook or stream fed by or flowing directly from a spring; spring-hole U.S., = spring-pit; spring-house U.S., an outhouse built over a spring or stream and used as a larder, dairy, etc.; spring-keeper U.S. (see quot.); spring-pit, a hole or cavity formed by a spring where it issues or rises; spring-salt (see quot.); spring-teller, one who finds springs by dowsing, etc.; spring-tooth (in allusion to Judges xv. 19).
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., xxvi. 191. Deer and antelopes came to the *spring-branch to drink.
1848. Buckley, Iliad, 136. He came to *spring-fed Ida.
1883. F. Mitchell, in Century Mag., Sept., 652/2. These ponds are, of course, spring-fed.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 329. Keep her a few days in a pool or *spring-hole.
1874. J. W. Long, Amer. Wild-fowl, xi. 171. The mallards … roosting in the small spring-holes and creeks.
1797. F. Baily, Tour (1856), 433. This subterraneous cavity would afford an excellent convenience for a *spring house.
1894. Outing, XXIV. 382/2. To see her at her best was at the butter-making down at the old spring-house.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 438. *Spring-keeper, a salamander, or small lizard-shaped animal, found in springs and fresh water rivulets.
1895. Mrs. A. C. Wilson, 5 Years India, 261. It costs a large sum of money to make a well where the spring-level is so deep, so a village often builds one by instalments.
1897. Edin. Rev., April, 458. The Danaid *spring-nymphs had to carry water in a sieve to prove their virginity.
1862. A. Newton, Zool. Anc. Europe, 21. These [fresh-water tortoises] were found … in a peat bog, by the side of a *spring-pit, at East Wretham, about seven feet below the surface.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4887/4. All well water’d with *Spring Ponds.
1799. J. Girvin, Impolicy prohib. Export. Rock Salt, 5. Salt is very properly distinguished by Mineralogists into Fossile-Salt, *Spring-Salt, and Sea-Salt.
1871. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 56. The method used by the *‘spring-tellers’ or ‘water-finders’ was simple enough.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., 172. I barre the Checke-bone, for feare of Sampsons tune…. But the *spring-tooth in the iawe, will do vs no harme.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 402. As for *spring-veines there are none to bee found.
1884. Mag. Art, March, 215/2. The velvety green of *spring-watered field-plots.
II. 5. The action or time of rising or springing into being or existence: a. The appearing or coming on, the first sign, of day, morning, etc.; the dawn. Also, the beginning of a season.
Fairly common from c. 1380 to c. 1600; now Obs. exc. poet. Cf. DAY-SPRING and OE. up-spring.
13[?]. K. Alis., 3586 (Bodl. MS.). For riȝth in þe dayes sprynge Tolomeus on hem com fleiȝeynge.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Macc. v. 30. It is maad in spryng of the day, whanne thei reysiden her eeȝen.
c. 1391. Chaucer, Astrol., II. § 6. To knowe the spring of the dawing and the ende of the euenyng.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, I vj b. At the sprynge of the daye they were at the monument.
c. 1530. Tindale, Jonas iv. C viij. The lorde ordeyned a worme agenst the springe of ye morow morninge.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 323. To the intent at the springe of the daye … they might invade the City.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 82. Neuer since the middle Summers spring Met we.
1611. Bible, 1 Sam. ix. 26. It came to passe about the spring of the day.
1623. Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test., Ded. Thou … shalt … Extend thy fame from Set to Spring of day.
1842. Tennyson, St. Sim. Styl., 108. I, ’tween the spring and downfall of the light, Bow down one thousand and two hundred times.
† b. Spring of the leaf, the time when trees begin to burst into leaf again. Obs.
1538. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. II. 98. Whiche I thynke shalbe about the spryng of the lefe.
1670. J. Smith, Eng. Improv. Reviv’d, 31. A good Labouring man may ditch and quick-set about the Spring or fall of the Leaf a ditch of six foot broad and five foot deep.
† c. The increase of the moon. Obs.–1
1559. Morwyng, Evonym., 116. Gather the Plantes … in faire weather, in the spring of the mone.
d. An outburst or fresh development. rare–1.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. vi. § 15. At one and the same time [the Reformation] it was ordayned by the Divine Providence, that there should attend withall a renovation and new spring of all other knowledges.
6. a. The spring of the year, = next. ? Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 274. Spring of the yere, printemps, prin.
1548. Turner, Names Herbes (E.D.S.), 80. In the sprynge of the yere, it hath yealowe floures.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 31. From thence [‘the eleuenth daye of Marche’] they recken the Springe of the yeare thre monethes.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl. (1848), 58. If then, in the Spring of the Year, our Reflector see the Gardener pruning a Fruit-tree.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Brassica, In the Spring of the Year these Cabbages will shoot out strongly.
1828. Farmer’s Jrnl., 12 May.
b. The first season of the year, or that between winter and summer, reckoned astronomically from the vernal equinox to the summer solstice; in popular use in Great Britain comprising the months of February, March and April; in U.S. March, April and May. Also transf., a season resembling this in some respect.
Used without article or with the, and in specialized cases with a, etc. Often with initial capital, and in poetry freq. personified.
(a) a. 1547. Surrey, in Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 4. Description of Spring, wherin eche thing renewes, saue onelie the louer.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 100. At spring (for the sommer) sowe garden ye shall.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VII. vii. 28. So, forth issew’d the Seasons of the yeare; First, lusty Spring, all dight in leaues of flowres.
1607. Lever, Q. Eliz. Tears, li. Beauteous floures, (The pretty children of the Earth and Spring).
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 751. Alone he tempts … Th’ unhappy Climes, where Spring was never known.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xi. 106 (Dubl.). If it be not sown before Spring, its Grain will be thin.
1779. Mirror, No. 16. The effects of the return of Spring have been frequently remarked.
1819. Shelley, Ode West Wind, v. O, Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
1848. L. Hunt, Jar of Honey, vii. 84. Thou still … art the same blithe, sweet thing Thou ever wast, O Spring.
1886. J. Ashby-Sterry, Lazy Minstrel (1892), 6. Spring’s Delights are now returning!
(b) a. 1547. Surrey, in Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 15. Like as when, rough winter spent, The pleasant spring straight draweth in vre.
1577. Googe, trans. Heresbach’s Husb., 22. Touching the season of your plowing, it must be cheefely in the spring.
1609. Dekker, Ravens Alm., Wks. (Grosart), IV. 194. Let vs now try if the spring will prooue any more cheerefull.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl. (1848), Pref. p. xviii. A dozen ordinary Pictures of the Spring (which yet are wont to charm Vulgar eyes).
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xi. 128 (Dubl.). The Wheat will have the Benefit of them earlier in the Spring.
1742. Gray, Spring, 26. The insect-youth are on the wing, Eager to taste the honied spring.
1828. Wordsw., Morn. Exerc., 48. Yet might’st thou seem … to sing All independent of the leafy spring.
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 20. In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
(c) 1596. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. iii. 38. As in an early Spring, We see th’appearing buds. Ibid. (1596), Rich. III., III. i. 94. Short Summers lightly haue a forward Spring.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, II. xiii. 111. Yet those which inhabite there, take it for a delightful spring.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 179. To sing The Pæstan Roses, and their double Spring.
1726–46. Thomson, Winter, 1069. The storms of Wintry Time will quickly pass, And one unbounded Spring encircle all.
1742. Gray, Eton Coll., 20. The gales … seem … To breathe a second spring.
1830. Tennyson, Nothing will die, ii. A spring rich and strange, Shall make the winds blow. Ibid. (1859), Merlin & V., 407. My blood Hath earnest in it of far springs to be.
c. fig. The first or early stage or period of life, youth, etc.
1590. Greene, Mourn. Garm. (1616), B ij b. Sophonos … carried graue thoughts, and in the spring of his youth such ripe fruits, as are found in the Autumne of age.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., I. iii. 84. Oh, how this spring of loue resembleth The vncertaine glory of an Aprill day.
1621. J. Taylor (Water P.), Motto, D 3. Who in the Spring, or Summer of his Pride, Was worship’d, honor’d, almost deifi’d.
1742. Gray, Spring, 49. On hasty wings thy youth is flown; Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone.
1781. Burke, Correspondence (1844), II. 437. A storm came upon us in the early spring of our toleration.
1826. Disraeli, V. Grey, IV. iv. You are blighted for ever in the very spring of your life.
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, I. vi. Apæcides was in the spring of his years.
d. Contrasted with fall, esp. in the phr. spring and fall (cf. FALL sb.1 2). Now arch.
1643. R. Baker, Chron. (1653), 183. So great oddes there is between the Spring and Fall of Fortune.
c. 1680. Hickeringill, Hist. Whiggism, Wks. 1716, I. II. 153. Parliaments are to sit frequently…. I do not say, as often as you take Physick (Spring and Fall at least).
1754. J. Bartlet, Gentl. Farriery (ed. 2), 173. This disease … in some horses shews itself spring and fall.
1764. Warburton, Lett. (1809), 354. I do not wonder that any studious man should in England want physic at Spring and Fall.
1826. [see FALL sb.1 2].
e. This season in a particular year.
1621. Ld. Dunfermline, in G. Seton, Mem. (1882), 130. I haue bein twayis or thrise this spring ellis at Archerie.
1677. Prideaux, Lett. (1875), 59. We shall goe on buildeing to, as soon as spring begins.
1711. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to W. Montagu, 24 March. I am going to the same place I went last spring.
a. 1758[?]. Gray, Song, 2. Ere the spring he would return.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Nov., 465. There can be no scarcity of that grain before the Spring.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 659, note. Ferguson … was excluded by name from the general pardon published in the following spring. Ibid. (1855), xvii. IV. 12. In the spring of 1691, the Waldensian shepherds … were surprised by glad tidings.
f. Used with numerals to mark a definite period, esp. in the age of a person or animal.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 299. When to four full Springs his Years advance.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., II. i. 371. Were I still in my five and twentieth spring.
g. ellipt. Spring wheat.
1896. Daily News, 30 Nov., 2/7. Wheat to-day is very firmly held…. English reds, 36s.; American springs, 37s.
7. attrib. and Comb. a. Attrib., passing into adj., in the sense ‘of or pertaining to the spring’; ‘appearing, happening, occurring, etc., in the spring,’ as spring-ague, -beam, -bird, -blood, -blossom, etc.; spring juices (see quot.); spring-pottage, soup, pottage or soup made of or from fresh green vegetables.
Only the earlier or more important instances are given.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 14. They might, instead of making a cure,… turn a *spring-ague or an autumn-surfeit into an epidemical malignant fever.
1684. Z. Cawdrey, Certainty Salvation, 28. The first warm and invigorating *Spring-beam to the Frost-nipt Loyalty of the Nation.
1760. T. Smith, Jrnl. (1849), 273. The robin and *spring birds came a week or ten days sooner than usual.
1855. Browning, Old Pictures Florence, xxiii. I have loved the season Of Art’s *spring-birth.
1825. J. Wilson, Poems, II. 96. Bright as *spring-blossoms after sunny showers.
1820. Keats, Isabella, xiii. Even bees, the little almsmen of *spring-bowers.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. II. vi. To be concerting measures for the *spring Campaign.
1849. D. J. Browne, Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855), 107. Generally speaking, *spring chickens are more desirable.
1817. Lady Morgan, France, I. 52. The morning light of an early *spring day.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 313. This Erithace commeth of the *Spring-dew.
1813. Scott, Trierm., I. i. Generous as spring-dews that bless the glad ground.
1818–20. E. Thompson, Nosologia (ed. 3), 321. Lichen; *Spring Eruption, Scorbutic Pimples.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 438. *Spring fever, the listless feeling caused by the first sudden increase of temperature in spring. It is often said of a lazy fellow, ‘He has got the spring fever.’
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1629), 387. Thus poesies of the *spring flowers were wrapt vp in a little greene silke, and dedicated to Kalas breasts.
1884. Mrs. C. Praed, Zéro, iv. The floor was carpeted with moss and spring flowers.
1765. Treat. Dom. Pigeons, 110. Their young ones … were as large as middling *spring fowls.
1615. A. Nicchols, Marr. & Wiving, x. 30. Lust,… the *Spring-frost of beauty.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 417. Retarding the blossoming of the trees, and lessening the risk of their being injured by spring frosts.
1851. Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Wind., 129. Until it loose The clammy clods and let out the *spring-growth.
1868. Rep. U. S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 255. As soon as the spring growth, sometimes called the midsummer shoot, is completed.
1824. Loudon, Encycl. Gard. (ed. 2), 662. The juice [of water-cress] is decocted with that of scurvy-grass and Seville oranges, and forms the popular remedy called *spring juices.
1831. W. Patrick, Indigenous Pl. Lanark., 46. Leaves [of Brooklime]…; generally gathered for medical purposes, and together with scurvy-grass, an ingredient in that nauseous composition called Spring juices.
1818. Keats, Teignm., ix. I’ve gather’d young *spring-leaves, and flowers gay Of periwinkles and wild strawberry.
1872. Symonds, Study Dante, 175. Like one of the white *spring-lilies of the Alps.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 279. The *spring litters [of pigs] stand greatly in need of the milk and whey.
1870. H. Smart, Race for Wife, i. The first *spring meeting became his assizes.
1775. Ash, *Springmonths, the months of the spring quarter.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. IV. ii. Through the spring months, as the Sower casts his corn abroad.
1818. Shelley, Marenghi, 124. Many a fresh *Spring morn would be awaken.
1775. Ash, *Springmorning, a mild growing morning.
1773. Ann. Reg., 87. After eating a hearty breakfast of *Spring pottage.
1836–7. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Scenes, xii. If the Parks be ‘the lungs of London,’ we wonder what Greenwich Fair is—a periodical breaking out, we suppose, a sort of *spring-rash.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 299. Strike fresh sap-roots, or buds preparative to the ensuing spring, and which will the next year be the *spring-roots.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Melissa, The variegated Sort makes a … pretty Appearance in the *Spring Season.
1789. T. Wright, Watering Meadows (1790), 8. Between March and May we are sure of *Spring-seed.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xi. 107 (Dubl.). That long Interval betwixt Autumn and *Spring Seed-times.
a. 1746. Holdsworth, Virgil (1768), 35. Scarce any tree growing faster than a young Alder,… especially in the *spring-shoot.
1763. Museum Rust., I. 141. When the ground is properly prepared, it should be planted with sets, being the spring shoots pulled up in a madder-plot.
1763. Mills, Pract. Husb., IV. 365. Immediately after a hasty *spring-shower.
1836. Fonblanque, Eng. under Seven Administr. (1837), III. 313. A *spring soup, a turbot, a few made dishes, a dessert, &c.
1859. Sala, Tw. round Clock (1861), 195. He … had twice spring soup, and twice salmon and cucumber.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 138. The *spring-tillows … do arise from the foot of the root of the winter-stems or shoots.
1641. Brome, Joviall Crew, II. (1652), D iv b. For a *spring-trick of youth, now, in the season.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, II. 243. As soon as the *spring vacation began.
1612. Webster, White Devil, II. i. 166. Neglected cassia or the naturall sweetes Of the *Spring-violet.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 233. The *Spring winds, which nips the young Buds.
1835. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., Acharn., 785, note. The ἄνεμοι ὀρνιθίαι, or spring-winds, which bring with them the birds of passage.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 482. There is found little or nothing to do till the burst of *spring-work comes.
b. In the sense ‘sown or suitable for sowing in the spring,’ as spring barley, corn, kale, onion, rye, wheat, etc.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 699. H[ordeum] vulgare, Bere, Bigg, Four-rowed or *Spring Barley.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xi. 107 (Dubl.). Wheat … hence having about thrice the time to be maintain’d that *Spring Corn hath.
1763. Mills, Pract. Husb., III. 171. Turneps … occupying the whole ground when it should be sowed with spring-corn.
1812. Examiner, 11 May, 292/1. All the spring corn … in a very backward state.
1885. Stallybrass, trans. Hehn’s Wand. Pl. & Anim., 450. They, who probably planted only spring-corn.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 637. Of the various sorts of cabbage, fit for field culture, the Scotch gray, the open green or *spring kale, and the turnip-rooted, are the hardiest.
1786. Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., 252. More … on warm borders to stand for *spring lettuces.
1882. Garden, 28 Jan., 65/3. This land we intend for *Spring Onions.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 226. It seems adviseable to delay the sowing of *spring-rye as long as can be.
1766. Compl. Farmer, 5 H. Having sown *spring wheat after a crop of madder.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., 244. A discrimination is highly necessary between winter wheat sown in the spring, and the Siberian, or real spring wheat.
1868. Rep. U. S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 417. They had been in the habit of using too much seed for spring wheat.
c. In the specific or popular names of plants, birds, fishes, insects, etc., as spring-beauty, -bell, crocus, gentian, -grass; † spring-froth, herring, usher, wagtail: (see quots.).
(a) 1846–50. A. Wood, Class-bk. Bot., 194. Claytonia Caroliniana. *Spring Beauty. Ibid., C. Virginica. Virginian Spring Beauty.
1874. Treas. Bot., Suppl. 1344. *Springbell, Sisyrinchium grandiflorum.
1846–50. A. Wood, Class-bk. Bot., 543. Crocus vernus, *Spring Crocus.
1829. Loudon, Encycl. Plants, 202. Gentiana verna, *spring gentian.
1713. Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 179. Soft Crested Grass … is thicker, softer, and more loose than our common Crested Grass, and in spike more nearly resembles our yellow *Spring Grass.
1771. Encycl. Brit., I. 327. Anthoxanthum … odoratum, or spring-grass, a native of Britain.
1845–50. Mrs. Lincoln, Lect. Bot., 139. The sweet scented spring-grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum).
(b) a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 449. An account of the cuckow-spit, or *spring-froth.
1868. Chambers’s Encycl., X. 387/1. The Alewife is called *Spring Herring in some places, and gasperau by the French Canadians.
1884. Goode, Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim., 579. The ‘Spring’ Herring or ‘Alewife,’ Clupea vernalis.
1832. J. Rennie, Consp. Butterfl. & Moths, 102. The *Spring Usher (Anisopteryx leucophearia …) appears in oak woods the end of February and March.
1802. Montagu, Ornith., s.v. Wagtail, *Spring, or Summer Wagtail.
8. Comb., as spring-budding, -digging, -dressing, flowering, etc.; spring-born, -gathered, -made, -planted, etc.; spring green a., light green.
(a) 1852. W. Wickenden, Hunchback’s Chest, 281. I had heard them [bells] with my Rose in the *spring-budding meadows.
1763. Mills, Pract. Husb., IV. 351. After each *spring digging,… the same care and management of the vines … must be continued.
1795. D. Walker, View Agric. Hertford, 39. The *spring or top dressings are the leading features of the Hertfordshire farming.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 669. Excepting in the first spring after sowing, no spring dressing is required till May.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Colchicum, *Spring-flowering Meadow-Saffron.
1866. Treas. Bot., 110/1. A pretty spring-flowering plant.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xi. 128 (Dubl.). This thus pulveriz’d Surface turn’d in, in the *Spring-Hoeing, enriches the Earth.
1817. Keats, Curious Shell, 14. What is it that hangs from thy shoulder, so brave, Embroider’d with many a *spring peering flower?
1782. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2), IX. 6631. The *spring planting may be performed the end of January or beginning of February.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 312. If the *spring-ploughing for barley or oats has been nine or ten inches deep.
1846. Keightley, Notes Virg., Georg., I. 43. The poet commences his precepts with the spring-ploughing of the land.
1826. Art of Brewing (ed. 2), 164. Soon after the *spring racking,… the casks may be gradually stopped.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 322. It is very common for grass-seeds to fail on such land, even from the *spring-sowing.
1883. F. A. Smith, Swedish Fisheries, 5. An essay on the cultivation of *spring-spawning fishes.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 439. A top-dressing of putrescent manure may be … left on the surface till the *spring-stirring.
(b) 1868. Morris, Earthly Par. (1890), 55/1. Unscared the *spring-born thrush did pass.
1857. Thornbury, Songs Cavaliers & Roundheads, 53. The sweet *spring-gather’d flowers fall before his feet in showers.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 304. The *spring-made cheese was tarter.
1812. New Botanic Gard., I. 32. These *spring-planted roots flower … after those which were planted in autumn.
1786. Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., 128. Plant out *spring-raised cabbages. Ibid., 137. Begin to weed the general *spring-sowed crops.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Nov., 473. The grain of *Spring sown fields.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 182. Indeed no grain will yield more than half a crop of poor quality, (on the Pacific slope), when spring-sown.
1864. Swinburne, Atalanta, 2112. As winter’s wan daughter Leaves lowland and lawn *Spring-stricken.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. IV., ccxlviii. Northumberland, who like a *Spring-taught Snayle Was crauling to haue Nibbled the fresh leafe.
1855. Woman’s Devot., II. 299. The fair shadowing green of the *spring touched larch.
(c) 1891. M. E. Wilkins, Humble Romance, etc. 46. The cottages were painted uniformly white, and had blinds of a bright Spring-green colour!
III. † 9. A young growth on a tree, plant or root; a shoot, sprout or sucker; a small branch, sprig or twig; the rudimentary shoot of a seed. In early quots. fig. Obs. (Freq. c. 1560–c. 1650.)
a. 1300. Cursor M., 27380. Quilk ar þaa sinnes þat scrift sal scau I sal þam recken siþen on rau, wit þair springes herefter neist. Ibid., 27737. Vnheind talking,… hurtes grett, and sclander and tene; þir ar þe springes o wreth fythtene.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 470. Sprynge, of a tre or plante,… planta, plantula.
1502. Arnolde, Chron., 62 b/2. Yf thou wylt plante an Almaunde tree … putte many kyrnels togyder in the erth or seuerelly and whan the sprynge is growen oute [etc.].
1559. Morwyng, Evonym., 304. Wet the end of a fether or other lyke thing, as some yong and tender spring of a trie.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 4. The roote … putting foorth on every side much encrease of new springs. Ibid., 369. Thymelæa hath many smal springs or branches, of the length of a cubite.
1660. Sharrock, Vegetables, 117. A spring of scarce discernable growth may serve as a foundation to the pedal of the blossom.
† b. A growth of this nature cut or slipped off, esp. for planting; a rod or switch; a cutting, set or slip. Also fig. Obs.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 41. Who-so spareth þe sprynge spilleth his children.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, III. vi. (Skeat), l. 4. ‘That tree to sette, fayn wolde I lerne.’… ‘The first thing, thou muste sette thy werke on grounde siker and good, accordaunt to thy springes.’
c. 1485. E. E. Misc. (1855), 67. There is moste connabylle tyme for sedys, graynys, and pepyns, and Autumpe for spryngys, and plantys.
1563. Hyll, Art Garden. (1593), 85. Between the old plants set yong springs, slipped off from the old.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 196. The same yong springs eaten alone by themselues in a salad, in maner of the tender crops and spurts of the Colewort,… do fasten the teeth.
1657. R. Austen, Fruit-trees, i. 60. After a yeare or two divers young springs may be drawne from the roots.
† c. A young tree, esp. one growing from a set or slip; a sapling. Obs.
1499. Pynson, Promp. Parv., P iv/2. Springe or yonge tre.
1545. in I. S. Leadam, Sel. Cas. Crt. Requests (1898), 85. To fell & cutt down viij yong Sprynges abowte Allhaloutyd.
1552. Huloet, Arboure or place made with quicke springes.
1563. Hyll, Art Garden. (1593), 6. That ground … which naturally bringeth forth of his own accord, both elms and wilde young springs.
fig. c. 1535. Elyot, Educ., B iv. Good aduertisements and preceptes, wherby the yonge spryng of vertuous maners shall growe streyghte.
† d. transf. A young man, a youth. Obs.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Earl Northumbld., iv. A sonne I had … That being yong, and but a very spring [etc.].
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. CV. ix. Their eldest-borne, that countries hopefull spring.
1590. Spenser, Muiopotmos, 292. Winged Loue, With his yong brother Sport;… The one his bowe and shafts, the other Spring A burning Teade about his head did moue.
10. A copse, grove or wood consisting of young trees springing up naturally from the stools of old ones; a plantation of young trees, esp. one inclosed and used for rearing or harboring game; a spinney. Now dial.
Freq. in the 16th and 17th c., often in local names.
1399. Fabric Rolls York Minster (Surtees Soc.), 132. Pro xxj rodis de hegyng circa le spring in Langwath.
1468–9. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 155. Pro factura liij rod. fossat. circa unam percellam terre juxta parcum de Shynkcley pro salvacione de le Spryng ibidem … xiij s. ix d.
c. 1490. Plumpton Corr. (Camden), 74. To cause suer search to be made, what horse & cattaille ther be, that goes in my spring within my parke at Spofford.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 135. So is a spryng beste kepte, where there is neyther manne nor foure-foted beastes within the hedge.
1576. Turberv., Hunting, xxxi. In small groues or hewts,… priuily enclosed within the greater springs in the Forests and strong couerts.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, XIII. xxxi. If his courage any champion moue To trie the hazard of this dreedfull spring, I giue him leaue…: This said, his Lords attempt the charmed groue.
1620–6. Quarles, Feast for Worms, 476. A Herd of Deere are browzing in a spring, With eager appetite.
1652. Blithe, Eng. Improver Impr. (ed. 3), 157. Although much dry,… hungry land doth not many times afford a thick Coppice, or good Spring.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Ring-walks, They go drawing in their Springs at Hart-Hunting.
1783–. in dialect glossaries (Yks., Lanc., Linc., Herts., Kent, etc.).
fig. 1591. Lyly, Endym., V. ii. Top. Howe shall I bee troubled when this younge springe shall growe to a great wood! Epi. O, sir, your chinne is but a quyller yet.
b. Const. of (wood, oak, etc.).
1483. Cath. Angl., 356. A Sprynge of wodde, virgultum.
1614. Minutes Archdeaconry Essex (MS.), He had cattle broke into a yonge springe of wood.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 218. I … In yonder Spring of Roses intermixt With Myrtle, find what to redress till Noon.
1690. in Hunter MSS. (Chapt. Durham), VII. 203. A parcell of ground whereon there is a new spring of Oakes growne 3 and 4 yards high.
1732. N. Riding Rec., IX. 120. All that spring of wood, adjoining to the last-mentioned close.
1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husb., IV. iv. 18. A Spinny, or Spring of Underwood.
1780. Newcastle Courant (E.D.D.), On the estate there are two fine springs of wood.
c. collect. Young growth, shoots, or sprouts, esp. the lower or under growth of trees or shrubs. Now dial.
1482. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 224/1. To save the spryng of their Wood so felled. Ibid. The same spryng hath be in tyme passed, and daily ys distroyed.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 126. Lay thy small trouse or thornes … ouer thy quickesettes, that shepe do not eate the sprynge nor buddes of thy settes.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., June, 53. The byrds, which in the lower spring Did shroude in shady leaues.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 514. The Pine tree also with her shaddow nippeth and killeth the yong spring of all plants within the reach thereof.
1670. Evelyn, Sylva (ed. 2), xxxiv. 220. When the Spring is of two years growth, draw part of it for Quicksets.
1823, 1854. in Suffolk and Northampt. glossaries.
d. attrib. and Comb., as spring-fall, -felling, -shaw. Chiefly dial. Also SPRING-WOOD.
1800. Tuke, Agric. Yks., 184. What is called ‘spring-felling,’ that is, felling the whole growth of the trees and underwood…, but so as not to injure the crown of the roots.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, 58. Pointers or setters which are broken to run in when ordered, may do in open spring-falls,… but they are too large for thick covert.
1887. Parish & Shaw, Dict. Kent. Dial., Spring-shaw, a strip of the young undergrowth of wood, from two to three rods wide.
11. A springing up, growing, or bursting forth of plants, vegetation, etc.; a growth or crop; also, a race or stock of persons. Now rare.
1624. Chapman, Homer’s Hymn Apollo, 554. A most dreadful and pernicious thing, Call’d Typhon, who on all the human spring Conferr’d confusion.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 10. Some fresh pasture wheare there is a good timely springe appearinge on the grownd.
a. 1652. Brome, Lovesick Crt., IV. ii. By a perpetual spring of more procere And bigger bladed grass.
1822. W. J. Napier, Pract. Store-farming, 58. Upon the part particularly alluded to, there appears to have arisen a great spring of natural fiorin.
IV. † 12. Rise, beginning, first appearance, or birth (of something). Obs.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 320. Ah we witen wel þet ure lahen, ure bileaue, & ure lei hefde lahe sprung [L. primordia].
1550. Bale, Unchaste Votaries, I. (1560), 17. Ye very spring or fyrst going forth of the Gospel.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., I. (Arb.), 141. The Latin tong,… from the spring, to the decay of the same.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. vi. § 1. Men, if we view them in their spring, are at the first without understanding or knowledge at all.
1682. Grew, Anat. Pl., Introd. 3. Plants have their set and peculiar Seasons for their Spring or Birth.
b. In the phr. to take (…) spring from or out of, to have source or origin in, to rise or originate in.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., IV. xv. 129. The riuer of Salef, which takes her spring from the mount of Taur.
1605. B. Jonson, Queen’s Masques, Blackness, A iij b. This riuer taketh spring out of a certain Lake, east-ward.
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., v. 222. The spiritual power … taking its spring from Christianity.
† c. ? The yolk of an egg. Obs.–1
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, I. xii. 54. Stampe them all togither with the spring of an egge.
13. † a. The rising of the sea (to an exceptional height) at particular times. (Cf. next.) Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xxix. (Tollem. MS.). Alwey in þe new mone þe sprynge of þe see is heyest, and also in þe ful mone.
1539. Act 31 Hen. VIII., c. 4. Ouerflowyng … of … grounde lying by the said riuer, with the high springes of the sea.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., II. xxiv. 65. All the whole length of the Citie is washed with the springs of the Sea.
b. = SPRING-TIDE 2. Chiefly pl. (So G. spring.)
1584. in J. J. Cartwright, Chapt. Hist. Yorks. (1872), 268. We say that there ryseth at the sprynge 18 foott water, and at the nepe eleaven foot water.
1622. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 180. It seemeth an iland, and in high springes I judge that the sea goeth round about it.
1641. J. Taylor (Water P.), Last Voy., B 6 b. The trade … is at the least two hundred Tunnes of all commodities, every spring, which is every fortnight or lesse.
1751. Anc. & Pres. St. Navig. Lyn, Wisbeach, etc. 25. The tides then generally run high, by Reason of the Springs putting in.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 15. The tide rises six feet on the springs.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., I. 147. The rise of tide may be stated at about six feet during the springs.
1858. Merc. Marine Mag., V. 366. The stream runs 5 knots at springs, and 3 knots at neaps.
1892. G. R. Lowndes, Camping Sketches, 211. Only the highest ‘springs’ could touch us.
transf. 1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 21. But when his [sc. the Nile’s] later spring gins to auale, Huge heapes of mudd he leaues.
attrib. 1846. McCulloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 59. There is a bar outside the entrance; but as it has about 13 feet water over it even at the lowest spring ebbs, it [etc.].
c. Without article.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 353. The difference between the intervals is greater at spring than at neap.
14. An act of springing or leaping; a bound, jump or leap.
c. 1450. in Rel. Ant., I. 309. Thy spryngys, thy quarters, thy rabetis also.
c. 1450. Merlin, i. 15. As she sodenly made a sprynge, the childe fill oute of hir arme.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 20 b. An holy monke, whiche in the poynt of his dethe sodeynly gaue a great sprynge vpwarde.
1674. trans. Martiniere’s Voy. N. C., 40. Upon which they [sc. reindeer] gave such a spring, we thought [etc.].
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 111. They carry the Leopards on Hackeries,… to give them the advantage of their Spring.
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 167. Altho’ his Adversary’s Horse make a Spring, and run past him.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 294. I made a spring towards a boat … and caught hold of the gunwale.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xxxi. 428. Taking two of the large stone stair-steps at each spring.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., iii. John Fry … in the spring of fright had brought himself down from Smiler’s side.
fig. 1878. Stewart & Tait, Unseen Univ., i. § 46. 63. When Science was pausing for the spring she has since made.
1889. Spectator, 26 Oct., 545/1. They must have … a certain largeness of view besides, shown in their repeated and sometimes successful springs at colonial empire.
b. A recoil or rebound of something after being bent or forced out of its normal position or form.
1680. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 184. Unless … with every Spring of the Pole they should lift their treading Leg so high as [etc.].
1779. Cowper, Human Frailty, 5. The bow well bent, and smart the spring, Vice seems already slain.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxiii. (1856), 196. A startling sensation, resembling the spring of a well-drawn bow.
c. A quick, convulsive or elastic movement made by certain plants or animals in dispersing or depositing seed, eggs, etc.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Nov., 451. I took some of the flies,… and pressing them a little, they quitted several eggs, which they quit one by one, with a sudden spring.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 112. The pericarp of many fruits, which open when ripe with a sort of sudden spring, ejecting the seed with violence. Ibid., 159. The elastic spring with which the anther flies open.
d. A distance capable of being covered by a spring or leap.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, II. xxix. Her spirit … far wandering, on the wing Of visions that were mine, beyond its utmost spring.
1831. Scott, Ct. Robt., xvi. A tiger, chained within no distant spring of his bed.
15. A flock of teal. Now arch.
c. 1450. Egerton MS. 1995, in Philol. Soc. Trans. (1909), 51. A sprynge of Telys.
c. 1470. Hors, Shepe, & G. (Roxb.), 30. A spryng of teeles.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, f vj b. [Hence in later lists.]
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, 78. The following Terms are in Use among Wildfowl-shooters:—A flock … of teal, ‘a spring.’
1892. Cornh. Mag., Aug., 152. Further out we notice a ‘spring’ of nine teal, those diminutive ducks so neat and pretty in life, and withal so excellent on the table.
16. A cut or joint of pork consisting of the belly or lower part of the fore-quarter. Obs. exc. dial.
1598. Florio, Bambetti, that ioynt of meate we call a spring or pestle of porke.
1622. Fletcher, Prophetess, I. iii. Can you be such an Ass … To think these springs of Pork will shoot up Cæsars?
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, III. 96. Pray hand the Spring of Porke to me.
1708. W. Wilson, trans. Petr. Arbiter, 97. He shall make you … a Turtle of a Spring of Pork.
1771. Mrs. Haywood, New Present for Maid, 20. The fore-quarter [of a hog] contains the spring and the fore-loin.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 240. The belly or spring [of pork], also fit for pickling, or for rolling up,… for brawn.
17. Naut. † a. A breach or opening in a vessel through the splitting or starting of a plank or seam, Obs.–1
1611. B. Jonson, Catiline, III. i. Each petty hand Can steer a ship becalmed; but he that will Govern and carry her to her ends must know … Where her springs are, her leaks; and how to stop ’em.
b. A crack or split in a mast or spar, esp. one of such a size as to render it unsafe to carry the usual amount of sail.
G. sprung has the general sense of ‘split, crack.’
1744. J. Philips, Jrnl. Exped. Anson, 157. We … discover’d a great Spring in the Foremast.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. ii. 135. The spring was two inches in depth.
1792. Trans. Soc. Arts, X. 212. An accident by a shot, a spring, a rottenness.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 292. A spar is said to be sprung, when it is cracked or split,… and the crack is called a spring.
18. The quality or capacity of springing; the power inherent in, or possessed by, a thing of spontaneously resuming or returning to its normal state or bulk when pressure or other force is withdrawn; elastic energy or force; elasticity.
a. Of the air.
Freq. from c. 1660 to c. 1770; now rare or Obs.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., i. 24. There is yet another way to explicate the Spring of the Air.
1687. D. Abercromby, Acad. Sci., App. IV. 4. By the help whereof [sc. the air-pump] he proves the Elastic Power and Spring of the Air.
1719. Quincy, Phys. Dict. (1722), 9. The Air … hath been found … by the Force of its own Spring, to possess 13000 times the space it does when pressed by the incumbent Atmosphere.
a. 1774. Goldsm., Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776), II. 84. This pressure is increased by another cause, I mean the air’s spring or elasticity.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 6. The operation is continued till the spring of the air in the receiver is no longer sufficient to lift the valves a b.
b. Of solids.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 72. The spring of the earth over-ballancing the weight of it as to power.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxiv. ¶ 5. Pieces of Felt … will Squeeze and retain their Spring for a considerable time.
1733. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, II. x. § 2 (1734), 219. There is in all Animal Fibres … an original Mechanism of Elasticity or Spring.
1753. Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, x. 60. A small wire that has lost its spring, and so will retain every shape it is twisted into.
1789. Trans. Soc. Arts, VII. 159. There is a spring in the whalebone, which prevents it turning steady.
1874. Pitt-Rivers, Evol. Culture, Princ. Classif. (1906), 16. Yielding few if any woods that have sufficient spring for the construction of the bow.
1879. S. C. Bartlett, Egypt to Pal., iv. 73. The knives and daggers had an elastic spring, which … they retain to this day.
c. Elasticity or springiness as possessed by persons or the limbs; buoyancy and vigor in movement.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Æneid, XI. 437 (J.). Heav’ns! what a spring was in his Arm, to throw!
1723. Steele, Consc. Lovers, III. 48. What a Spring in her Step!
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 135. Th’ elastic spring of an unwearied foot That mounts the stile with ease.
1820. Hazlitt, Table-T., Ser. II. xvi. (1869), 317. Do nothing to take away … the spring and elasticity of your muscles.
1845. Bailey, Festus (ed. 2), 235. It is sad To … Know eyes are dimming, bosom shrivelling, feet Losing their spring.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 678. At first the patient finds that he is losing his spring in walking.
19. transf. Buoyancy, activity, vigor of mind, temper, etc.; active power or faculty.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., III. § 20. Persons vitiously inclined … having the Elater and Spring of their own Natures to facilitate their Iniquities.
1714. R. Fiddes, Pract. Disc., II. 116. If the mind be too long bent upon one thing, twill lose its spring and activity.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 192. A selfish villain may possess a spring and alacrity of temper.
1831. Scott, Ct. Robt., xxvii. Ere he has … recovered, in some degree, the spring of his mind, and the powers of his body.
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. 41. Happy journey by the Eastern Riviera began to restore my spring of heart.
20. Arch. The point at which an arch or vault springs or rises from its abutment or impost; the commencement of curvature in an arch.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., II. 38/2. Columns of height sufficient to reach to the spring of their Arches.
1772. C. Hutton, Bridges, 63. When the arch stones only are laid, and the pier built no higher than the spring.
1864. Boutell, Her. Hist. & Pop., xix. (ed. 3), 317. The arches recede inwards from their spring from the Circlet.
1875. Merivale, Gen. Hist. Rome, lxxix. (1877), 670. There remain on the face of the Palatine some indications of what may have been the spring of the first arch.
attrib. 1735. J. Price, Stone-Br. Thames, 4. The Piers,… under the Chaptrel, or Spring Stones, have a Square Course.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 539. The supports of an arch are called the spring walls.
1859. T. H. Turner, Dom. Archit., III. II. vii. 312. But there are the spring-stones of a fan-tracery vault.
¶ b. The rise of an arch; the ascent or slope of a bridge.
1753. Scots Mag., Aug., 422/1. The arch … was fifty-five feet wide, and had but eight feet of spring.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, xxvi. An old, hobbling woman … set forth again up the steep spring of the bridge.
21. a. techn. (See quot. 1825.) Also attrib.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 601. The bevel by which the edge of the plank is reduced from the right angle when the plank is sprung, is termed the spring of the plank.
1842. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Spring Bevel of a Rail, the angle made by the top of the plank, with a vertical plane touching the ends of the railpiece, which terminates the concave side.
b. Naut. The sheer, the upward curvature or rise, of the deck planking of a vessel or boat.
So G. spring and sprung.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 353/1. The reason why she has such an extraordinary sheer or spring in the fore part of her upper deck.
1881. Standard, 9 Aug., 6/3. The boat is high at the bow and stern, being built with what is known as a good spring.
V. 22. An elastic contrivance or mechanical device, usually consisting of a strip or plate of steel (or a number of these) suitably shaped or adjusted, which, when compressed, bent, coiled, or otherwise forced out of its normal shape, possesses the property of returning to it.
Springs vary greatly in form, size and use, but are used chiefly for imparting or communicating motion (either by gradual unwinding, as in the spring of a clock or watch, or by sudden release), for regulating or controlling movement, or for lessening or preventing concussion.
Cf. G. springfeder, Du. -veer, Da. -fjær, Sw. fjäder.
a. In a clock, watch, etc., or in general use.
1428. Acts Privy Council (1834), III. 289. Item for amendyng of the spryng of the barell [of a clock] vj s. viij d.
[1472. in Rogers, Agric. & Prices (1882), IV. 622. A spring to a clock is purchased by King’s College, Cambridge, for 2d.]
1598. Florio, Molla, a wheele of a clocke that mooueth all the rest called the spring.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 35. Ingenious Germane, how didst thou conuey Thy Springs, thy Scrues, thy rowells, and thy flie?
1611. Shaks., Cymb., II. ii. 47. To th’ Truncke againe, and shut the spring of it.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., ii. 28. The Spring H forces the Bolt forwards when it is shot back with the Key.
1713. Lond. Gaz., No. 5155/4. A Gold Watch,… going with a Spring, Without Fusey, Chain or String.
1771. Encycl. Brit., III. 936. The quickness or slowness of the vibrations of the balance depend not solely upon the action of the great spring, but chiefly upon the action of the spring a, b, c, called the spiral spring.
1825. Scott, Talism., xii. At the same time was heard the sound of a spring or check, as when a crossbow is bent.
1860. Dickens, Uncomm. Trav., xiv. One … rap was rapped that might have been a spring in Mr. Testator’s easy-chair to shoot him out of it.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2275/2. A helical spring has coils of decreasing diameter as they approach the center.
b. In a carriage, coach, or other vehicle.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 5 Sept. After dinner comes Colonel Blunt in his new chariot made with springs.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4235/3. The sole Benefit of making and vending certain Steel Springs he hath … invented for ease of Persons riding in Coaches.
1794. W. Felton, Carriages (1801), I. 72. Short light springs which contain but few plates, have frequently no hoops.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 117. What is technically understood in carriages by the term ‘spring’ is a plate or plates of tempered steel properly shaped to play in any required mode.
1876. Encycl. Brit., V. 137/1. The elliptic springs, upon which nearly all carriages are now mounted.
23. fig. That by which action is produced, inspired or instigated; a moving, actuating or impelling agency, cause or force; a motive.
Frequent from c. 1700, either with direct allusion to the literal sense (a), or in a more indefinite use (b) which is sometimes not clearly distinguishable from sense 3.
(a) c. 1616. S. Ward, Coal fr. Altar (1627), 41. They ascribe it either to vaine glory, or couetousnesse; the only springs that set their wheeles on going.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 499. By these the Springs of Property were bent, And wound so high, they Crack’d the Government.
1720. Ozell, Vertot’s Rom. Rep., II. XII. 214. The Springs Pompey set at work to deprive all the Commanders of the Commonwealth of their Posts.
1748. J. Geddes, Composit. Antients, 15. The spring, the just tone of the soul, is broke.
1767. A. Young, Farmer’s Lett. to People, 61. These men are yet more able … to put all the springs of a perfect culture in motion.
1815. J. Cormack, Abol. Fem. Infanticide Guzerat, xiv. 278. The springs of this mighty political engine, however, have, generally speaking, already lost their elasticity.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1876), I. xiv. 255. Morny … prepared to touch the springs of that wondrous machinery by which a clerk can dictate to a nation.
1872. Bagehot, Physics & Pol., 162. At once the fatal clog is removed, and the ordinary springs of progress … begin their elastic action.
(b) 1691. Ray, Creation (1714), 47. What is the Spring and principal Efficient of this Reciprocation.
1717. J. Keill, Anim. Oeconomy (1738), 150. Secretion is the Spring of all the animal Functions.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 177. A strange Impression upon the Mind, from we know not what Springs, and by we know not what Power.
1774. Franklin, Ess., Wks. 1840, II. 385. The spring or movement of such intercourse is … gain, or the hopes of gain.
1810. S. Smith, in Edin. Rev., XV. 309. Instead of hanging the understanding of a woman upon walls,… we would make it the first spring and ornament of society.
1853. Merivale, Rom. Rep., ii. (1867), 39. The love of gold was the sordid spring of the most brilliant enterprises of the republic.
1871. Lowell, Pope, Wks. 1890, IV. 31. The exposer of those motives … whose spring is in institutions and habits of purely worldly origin.
b. Freq. const. of action (or conduct).
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., ix. 173. The springs of all human actions.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 285. It is difficult … to come at the true springs of action.
1806. Surr, Winter in Lond., III. 174. Whether public zeal and patriotic motives, were the springs of his lordship’s conduct.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp., ii. (1865), I. 73. The real springs of human action were unknown to him, or disregarded by him.
1885. J. Martineau, Types Eth. Th., II. II. iii. § 1. 518. Numerous springs of action and modes of feeling which neither interest nor reason could be shown to evolve.
c. In the phr. springs of life.
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 329. While sickly damps, and cold autumnal fogs, Hung not, relaxing, on the springs of life.
1819. Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1837), IV. viii. 268. A grief of that calm and concentrated kind which … gradually wastes the springs of life.
† d. A device; a trick or artifice. Obs. rare.
1753. Miss Collier, Art Torment., II. iii. (1811), 164. This method of granting favours in a disgustful manner, is one of our chief springs, and must be practised in as many connections as you possibly can introduce it.
24. Naut. A rope put out from the end or side of a vessel lying at anchor, and made fast to the cable. (So G. spring, springtau.)
1744. J. Philips, Jrnl. Exped. Anson, 156. We clapt a Spring on the Sheet-cable to prevent her from swinging.
1753. Hanway, Trav., III. xlviii. (1762), I. 219. We were obliged to put a spring on our cable, in order to bring our guns to bear on them.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Spring is … a rope passed out of one extremity of a ship and attached to a cable proceeding from the other, when she lies at anchor.
1800. Hull Advertiser, 16 Aug., 1/4. A gun-brig … moored with springs on her cables.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xxx. He had warped round with the springs on his cable, and had recommenced his fire upon the Aurora.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 202. Slip the cable, and then the spring.
attrib. 1806. A. Duncan, Nelson, 94. The French fleet…, moored on spring cables.
b. (See quots.)
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Spring is likewise a rope reaching diagonally from the stern of a ship to the head of another which lies along-side or abreast of her, at a short distance. Ibid., Springs of this sort are … occasionally applied from a ship to a wharf or key.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Spring, a hawser laid out to some fixed object to slue a vessel proceeding to sea.
attrib. 1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Spring-line, in a ponton-bridge, a line passing diagonally from one ponton to another.
25. attrib. a. Simple attrib. in various senses, esp. ‘fitted with a spring or springs,’ ‘acting like a spring,’ ‘of or pertaining to a spring,’ as spring-arbor, -balance, -bar, -barrel, -bed, etc.
The number of these is very great, and only the more important are illustrated here. Others are recorded and explained by Knight, Dict. Mech., and in recent Dicts.
1696. W. Derham, Artif. Clock-m., 2. Next for the Spring. That which the Spring … laps about, in the middle of the Spring-box, is the *Spring-Arbor.
a. 1788. Imison, Sch. Arts, I. 273. At the top of the spring-arbor, is the endless-screw, and its wheel.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 385. *Spring-balance, a machine in which the elasticity of a spring of tempered steel is employed as a means of measuring weight or force.
1889. Science-Gossip, XXV. 36. If a body were resting on a delicate spring balance.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, 394. The *Spring-bar to which the stirrup-leather is attached, and which easily allows this part of saddle … to be set at liberty the moment the rider is hung by it.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Spring-bar, a bar parallel with the axle and resting upon the middle of the elliptic spring.
1881. W. E. Dickson, Organ-Build., v. 65. The spring-bar has a slip of wood … glued or bradded to it.
1850. Denison, Clock & Watch-m., 110. It is all wound off the *spring barrel on to a fusee.
1846. Holtzapffel, Turning, II. 913. The cloth … passes from a roller over a round bar, and comes in contact with the *spring bed, which is a long elastic plate of steel, fixed to the framing of the machine.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Spring-bed, an elastic or air mattress.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 3579, Russell’s Camp Hospital Spring Bed or Dhoolee Stretcher.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, III. vi. 102. Jessie Bridgeman touched a *spring bell on the tea-table.
1786. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 74. Your *spring-block for assisting a vessel in sailing cannot be tried here.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Spring-block, a common block … connected to a ring-bolt by a spiral spring.
1634. in Archaeol. (1853), XXXV. 199. One two-leaf wyndowe with longe boult, *springe boult, and staples.
1703. R. Neve, City & C. Purchaser, 33. Ironmongers distinguish those for House-building, into … Plate, Round, and Spring Bolts.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., xvi. ‘Enter here then, gentlemen,’ said the jailor, undoing the spring-bolt of a heavy door.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 289. These fit over spring bolts projecting on either side from a block.
1693. Lond. Gaz., No. 2896/4. Both wearing light bob Wigs, and … Camblet Coats,… with new *Spring Boots, and Spurs.
1776. R. Daniel, in Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Wearing App., III. (1876), 1. New kind of boots called spring boots.
1696. W. Derham, Artif. Clock-m., 2. That which the Spring lies in, is the *Spring-box.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 500. The chain, which requires to be uncoiled from the spring-box.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., 130. Spring-box, the receptacle at the head of the press holding the spring which acts on the bar-handle.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Spring-braces, elastic suspenders for men’s trousers.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., 130. *Spring brass, rules cast in flexible brass—the reverse of ‘soft’ or ‘bending’ brass rule.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 408/1. I claim, as my invention or improvement in carriages,… the peculiar adaptation of *spring buffers and spring fastenings.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 46. *Spring callipers … are useful when it is desired to retain a measurement.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 595. It terminates in a handle furnished with a *spring-catch.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 273. The shutter … is held by a spring catch.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 425/1. On the large plate P, is a *spring-click.
1888. Rutley, Rock-Forming Min., 18. The most generally useful contrivances are *spring clips.
1737. Gentl. Mag., VII. 67. There are some *Spring Clocks and Watches, so contriv’d by Art as to lose no Time in winding.
1829. Chapters Phys. Sci., 92. The wheels in the spring clocks and in watches are urged on by the force of a spiral spring.
1850. Denison, Clock & Watch-m., 109. This inequality of force is removed in English spring clocks and watches.
1894. T. W. Fox, Mech. Weaving, ix. 259. *Spring cords … consist of two wooden end-pieces … into which two wires … are driven.
1780. Mirror, No. 80. The Elastic Cushion and *Spring Curls, which … are as natural and becoming … [as] the natural hair itself.
1858. Greener, Gunnery, 323. Take a *spring cushion (something like the spring machine found at all fairs for testing the force of a man pressing against it).
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 232. *Spring-dart, an arrow or fish-headed boring tool for extricating a lost implement, or for withdrawing lining tubes.
1873. E. Spon, Workshop Receipts, Ser. I. 3/1. The differences of the distances … may be measured by *spring dividers.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2750. The *spring-dog is depressed by a lever.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 63. Spring-dog, a spring hook used on a winding or haulage rope.
1826. Scott, Woodstock, xiv. He would have Woodstock a trap,… you the *spring-fall which should bar their escape.
1838. *Spring fastening [see Spring buffer].
1812. Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 136. The danger attending the use of the *spring-flask in shooting.
1895. Strand Mag., 113. In the Hall a *spring floor has been laid over the ordinary hard oak boards.
1846. Brittan, trans. Malgaigne’s Man. Oper. Surg., 374. Place in the wound either a canula, or a *spring forceps whose branches hold its edges open.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Spring Forelock, one jagged or split at the point, thereby forming springs to prevent its drawing.
1797. J. Curr, Coal Viewer, 67. 2 of them [double spring beams] go 18 or 20 inches through the main wall for the convenience of fixing the outside *spring frame.
1780. Mirror, No. 68. The last time I came from London I brought down a parcel of *spring garters.
1841. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., IV. 13/1. A full description of the four instruments employed … to determine the pressure of the steam,… namely, the barometer-gauge,… and the *spring-gauge.
1850. Holtzapffel, Turning, III. 1254. Long conical holes, such as axletree boxes, are sometimes ground upon the *spring grinder.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xxii. (Roxb.), 277. The second is a *Spring Hooke, or Springer; it is a kind of double Hook with a spring,… which being strucken into the mouth of any fish, the 2 hooks fly asunder, and so keeps the fish mouth open.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6089, Spring hooks, curb chains, pole chains.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 232. Spring hook, an iron hook attached to the end of a winding capstan, or crab rope, fitted with a spring for closing the opening, and thus preventing the kibble, &c., from falling off.
1835–6. Owen, in Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 287/2. It has been denied that the *spring-joint [of birds] ever exists at the knee.
1901. P. Marshall, Metal-w. Tools, 14. In this pattern the legs have a spring joint at the top which tends to keep them apart.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 325. With the mortar and levigating stone, a *spring-knife is very useful.
1882. Encycl. Brit., xiv. 323. The turner giving the rotation by means of the treadle and *spring-lath attached to the ceiling.
1852. Seidel, Organ, 128. The palate, together with its spring, must be taken out. For this purpose an instrument called a *spring lever is used.
1858. *Spring machine [see spring cushion above].
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Spring-mattress, one having metallic springs beneath the hair or moss filling.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 135. When the elastic tool, or *‘spring passer,’ has been compressed,… it is put in motion.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 16. The workman takes what he calls a *spring piercer, a tool … consisting of two somewhat elastic steel blades.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Spring-pin, in the English practice, a rod between the springs and axle-boxes, to regulate the pressure on the axles.
1881. Greener, Gun, 263. It … may be removed by completely turning out the spring pin.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 123. The elasticity of a *spring plate somewhat resembles the elasticity of a common cane.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., 130. *Spring points, these are a special kind of press points which assist in throwing the sheet off the spur of the point as printed.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 87. The cumbersome wooden frame-work of the old forges, including the timber, *spring-pole and hammer beam.
1837. Hebert, Engin. & Mech. Encycl., II. 814. The string is fastened to the end of the spring-pole in a similar manner.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 233. Spring pole, a fir pole having considerable elasticity, to which the boring rods are suspended.
1662. H. More, Antid. Ath., II. ii. § 10. Which Pressure (as in all flexible Bodies that have a *Spring-power in them) is perpetual.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts (ed. 4), II. 831. The action of the *spring-presser is to consolidate the roving.
1694. Phil. Trans., XVIII. 103. Its shape is not very unlike to a sort of *Spring-Purse (as they are called) which many people use.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3739/4. A striped Silk Spring-Purse.
1860. All Year Round, No. 57. 162. A hundred *spring rattles would not realise the noise.
1850. Denison, Clock & Watch-m., 239. I have lately seen some small French clocks with a *spring remontoire on the second wheel.
1836–7. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Tales, i. There were meat-safe-looking blinds … and *spring-roller blinds.
1687. J. Smith, Art Painting (ed. 2), 11. With a fine *Spring-Saw, cut it into scantlings.
1778. Life T. Boulter, 57. A certain sum to procure some spring saws.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxiii. She had procured … spring-saw for me.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Spring-searcher, a steel-pronged tool to search for defects in the bore of a gun.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Spring-seat, a chair or couch with a spring in it.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 4721, Elliptical spring-seat saddle, and tree showing action of spring.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl., Spring Seat, the support for the lower part of a spring, shaped according to circumstances.
1839. T. C. Hofland, Brit. Angler’s Man., v. (1841), 124. The *spring-snap was formerly much in use.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, 256. The *Spring Snap-Bait is … composed of a case which connects and keeps in place the shanks of the hooks…, but which, when drawn out, expand by their own elasticity. Ibid. The snap-hook is either the plain or the *spring snap-hook.
1864. Athenæum, 27 Feb., 294. Pulling the door quickly after them, so as to hasp the *spring-sneck in the brass lock.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 266. Upon the glass arm is cemented a piece of brass r, containing a *spring socket.
1871. Voyle, Milit. Dict. (ed. 2), *Spring spike, in artillery, a spike with a spring attached to it, used for rendering a gun temporarily unserviceable.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 126. Leathern braces … were supported by a bracket or buttress of iron called the *‘Spring Stay.’
1841. R. H. Dana, Seaman’s Man., 125. Spring-stay, a preventer-stay, to assist the regular one.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Spring-Stays, are rather smaller than the stays, and are placed above them, being intended as substitutes should the main one be shot away.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 84. To put an oak solid two-light proper frame … with … *spring stay-irons (irons to keep the window open) to the back kitchen.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 135. For this reason it would be advantageous to use *spring-steel in lieu of iron.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 192. Its superior elasticity also adapts it to the formation of springs; some kinds of steel are prepared expressly for the same under the name of spring-steel.
1868. Joynson, Metals, 78. When blistered steel has to be drawn out or reduced by the rolls, it forms ‘spring steel.’
1880. W. Carnegie, Pract. Trapping, 50. Arrange the nooses in such a manner that if one of them or the crutched stick is touched the latter falls, and releasing the crosspiece, the *spring-stick flies up, and the bird with it.
1884. C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Rec., Ser. III. 74/2. The *spring-studs must of course be insulated from the clock-plate.
1778. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2), III. 2171. To remove these inconveniencies, some needles are made of one piece of steel of a *spring temper.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2061. They are polished, and then brought to ‘spring temper’ by heating.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 579. This opening is then enlarged, by introducing the blade of a pair of *spring-tongs.
1859. R. Hunt, Guide Mus. Pract. Geol. (ed. 2), 103. Several of the tools [for glass-making] are exhibited,… the *spring tool, the shears, &c.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Spring-tool, the light tongs of the glass-blower whereby handles and light objects are grasped.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 648. Some *spring-trappes, to snickle or halter either bird or beast.
1800. Mar. Edgeworth, Belinda, xxii. A man whose leg had … been caught in the spring-trap.
1820. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., I. 80. There is generally some covert meaning in the names of Aristophanes…; his readers’ feet are always treading on spring-traps.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 224, ¶ 5. Little cuts and figures, the invention of which we must ascribe to the Author of *Spring-Trusses.
1790. Ann. Reg., Hist., 115/2. Among these arms were some walking sticks with *spring-tucks concealed within them.
1714. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1733), II. 177. If he was wholly unacquainted with the nature of a *spring-watch.
a. 1825. in J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 523. This locking … has … the advantage … of being firmer, and less liable to be out of repair, than any locking where *spring-work is used.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 299. ‘Spring work,’… that is, any articles in which springs are introduced.
b. With the names of vehicles, in the sense ‘having springs, hung or suspended on springs,’ as spring ambulance, -carriage, -cart, -van, -wagon.
1864. Sala, in Daily Tel., 6 April, 5/2. A couple of *spring ambulances, drawn by four horses apiece, had consequently been provided to convey the ladies and the civilians to the festival.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 386. C-springs … were formerly used for almost all kinds of *spring-carriages.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxix. You’ll drive her over in the *spring-cart.
1860. Dickens, Uncomm. Trav., v. She shall be fetched by niece in a spring-cart.
1900. H. Lawson, On Track, 86. It was her mother an’ sister in the spring-cart,… the doctor in his buggy.
1836–7. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Scenes, xii. The charge of having once made the passage in a *spring-van. Ibid. (1865), Mut. Fr., I. x. A spring van is delivering its load of greenhouse plants at the door.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 117. The tax to which *spring vehicles are subject.
1794. Gentl. Mag., LXIV. II. 1074. The best thing to be done generally … is to put the patient into a *spring-waggon.
1849. Sir F. B. Head, Stokers & Pokers, viii. Each species of goods … is immediately unloaded and despatched by spring waggons to its destination.
1897. Beatrice Harraden, Hilda Strafford, 101. The horses were plunging in the mud, and the spring-waggon had sunk up to the hubs.
c. In similar combs. used attributively or objectively, as spring-blade knife, etc.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Spring-blade knife, a pocket-knife whose blade is thrown out or held out by a spring.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Spring-blind maker, a maker of window blinds working on springs.
1853. in Inquiry, Yorksh. Deaf & Dumb (1870), 30. *Spring-knife manufacturer. Ibid. (1870), 34. A spring-knife cutler.
1874. Lawson, Dis. Eye, 94. A *spring-stop speculum … is to be introduced between the [eye-] lids, so as to keep them apart.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 32. With these *Spring-teeth-Rakes one person is said to do considerably more work than with the common wood rakes.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 138. Another *spring tong arrangement, in which the legs are wood.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., I. ii. 157. This consists of a *spring-wire coil acting on an inner tube.
26. Comb. a. With agent-nouns (denoting persons or implements), as spring-contractor, -forger, -maker.
1843. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 245. Description of Lieutenant D. Rankine’s [Railway] *Spring Contractor.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Spring-forgers, workmen in the cutlery trade, who form the spring or piece of steel at the back of clasp and folding pocket-knives.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 81. The *spring-makers assert that steel of a finer quality would not answer so well.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Spring-maker, a manufacturer of steel compound springs for carriages, or of metal springs for easy chairs.
1896. Daily News, 22 June, 11/3. At West Bromwich there is a strike amongst the spring makers.
b. With vbl. sbs. and pres. pples., as spring-making, -shaping.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 123. It is evident that the whole process of spring-making is defective.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 848. Spring Shaping Machine.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 151. Two smithies, with over 100 fires, and turning and spring-making shops.
c. With pa. pples. or adjs., as spring-framed, -jointed, -snecked, -tempered, -tight.
Spring-heeled Jack, a name given to a person who from his great activity in running or jumping, esp. in order to rob or frighten people, was supposed to have springs in the heels of his boots; dial. a highwayman.
1899. J. Pennell, in Fortn. Rev., LXV. 113. I ought also to mention a *spring-framed machine, the Triumph, with curved tubing.
1838. Standard, 22 Feb., 4/6. For God’s sake bring me a light, for we have caught *Spring-heeled Jack here in the lane.
1840. Hood, Kilmansegg, Fancy Ball, xi. Tom, and Jerry, and *Spring-heel’d Jack.
1855. Smedley, Occult Sciences, 76. Like the lately popular Spring-heeled Jack.
1887. S. Cheshire Gloss., 367. There are so many o’ these Spring-heeled Jacks about.
1786. in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Pub. Rec., II. 174. A Buckle … with a new-constructed *spring-jointed Plate.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 120. He had never been able to accomplish the art of opening a gate, especially one of those gingerly-balanced, *spring-snecked things.
a. 1788. Imison, Sch. Arts, II. 164. A piece of *spring-tempered steel will not retain as much magnetism as hard steel.
1876. Preece & Sivewright, Telegraphy, 82. This is effected by means of a carrier arm fixed *‘spring-tight’ on an axle.
