Spunge to Squab
Spunge
(Spunge) n. A sponge. [Obs.]
Spunk
(Spunk) n. [Gael. spong, or Ir. sponc, tinder, sponge; cf. AS. sponge a sponge spon a chip.
Cf. Sponge, Punk.] [Written also sponk.]
1. Wood that readily takes fire; touchwood; also, a kind of tinder made from a species of fungus; punk; amadou.
Sir T. Browne.
2. An inflammable temper; spirit; mettle; pluck; as, a man of spunk. [Colloq.]
A lawless and dangerous set, men of spunk, and spirit, and power, both of mind and body.
Prof. Wilson. Spunky
(Spunk"y) a. [Compar. Spunkier ; superl. Spunkiest.] Full of spunk; quick; spirited. [Colloq.]
Spur
(Spur) n. [See Sparrow.] (Zoöl.) (a) A sparrow. [Scot.] (b) A tern. [Prov. Eng.]
Spur
(Spur), n. [OE. spure, AS. spura, spora; akin to D. spoor, G. sporn, OHG. sporo, Icel. spori,
Dan. spore, Sw. sporre, and to AS. spor a trace, footstep, spyrian to trace, track, examine, and E.
spurn. &radic171. Cf. Sparrow, Spere, Spoor, Spurn.]
1. An implement secured to the heel, or above the heel, of a horseman, to urge the horse by its pressure.
Modern spurs have a small wheel, or rowel, with short points. Spurs were the badge of knighthood.
And on her feet a pair of spurs large.
Chaucer. 2. That which goads to action; an incitement.
Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights and
live laborious days.
Milton. 3. Something that projects; a snag.
4. One of the large or principal roots of a tree. Shak.
5. (Zoöl.) Any stiff, sharp spine, as on the wings and legs of certain burds, on the legs of insects, etc.; especially,
the spine on a cock's leg.
6. A mountain that shoots from any other mountain, or range of mountains, and extends to some distance
in a lateral direction, or at right angles.
7. A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass
of a whale, to strip off the blubber.
8. (Carp.) A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.
9. (Arch.) (a) The short wooden buttress of a post. (b) A projection from the round base of a column,
occupying the angle of a square plinth upon which the base rests, or bringing the bottom bed of the
base to a nearly square form. It is generally carved in leafage.
10. (Bot.) (a) Any projecting appendage of a flower looking like a spur. Gray. (b) Ergotized rye or
other grain. [R.]
11. (Fort.) A wall that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.
12. (Shipbuilding) (a) A piece of timber fixed on the bilge ways before launching, having the upper
ends bolted to the vessel's side. (b) A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck
where a whole beam can not be placed.
