Etymology

.

Sense of ‘season’ 1547, from earlier springing time, spring-time, in sense of buds sprouting or “spring” up. This replaced Old English by the 14th century.

Sense of ‘source of water’ attested circa 1225.

Verb

1. To start to exist.

   Sometimes the ideas spring to life fully formed.

2. To jump or leap.

   He sprang up from his seat.

3. To release or set free, especially from prison.

Synonyms

: be born, come into being, come into existence: bound, jump, leap: free, let out, release, spring loose

Related terms

• sprang
• springwort
• sprung
• to-spring
• unspring

Noun

1. Traditionally the first of the four seasons of the year in temperate regions, in which plants spring from the ground and trees come into blossom, following winter and preceding summer.
2. Meteorologically, the months of March, April and May in the northern hemisphere (or September, October and November in the southern).
3. The astronomically delineated period from the moment of vernal equinox, approximately March 20 in the northern hemisphere (September 22 in the southern), to the moment of the summer solstice, approximately June 21 (December 22).
4. Spring tide; a tide of greater-than-average range, that is, around the first or third quarter of a lunar month, or around the times of the new or full moon.
5. A place where water emerges from the ground.
6. The property of a body of springing to its original form after being compressed, stretched, etc.
7. A mechanical device made of flexible or coiled material that exerts force when it is bent, compressed or stretched.
8. A rope attaching the bow of a vessel to the stern-side of the jetty, or vice versa, to stop the vessel from swaying.
9. An erection of the penis.
10. The source of an action
    • 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973, § 9.

      ... discover, at least in some degree, the secret springs and principles, by which the human mind is actuated in its operations?

Synonyms

: fount, source: bounce, bounciness, elasticity, resilience, springiness: boner, chubby, hard-on, stiffy, woody; see also "erection" in WikiSaurus: impetus, impulse

Related terms

• aspring
• atspring
• bespring
• espringal
• rumspringa
• springal, springald

• springboc, springbock
• springbok
• springe
• spring-haas, springhaas
• springhalt
• springle