▪ I. ˈspurring, n.
[f. spur n.1 11 c.]
A railway side-track.
| 1842 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. V. 85/2 The sub-contractor..had to..lay down the temporary road, including turn-outs, shunts, crossings, boxes, spurrings, &c. |
▪ II. spurring, vbl. n.1
(ˈspɜːrɪŋ)
[f. spur v.1]
1. The action of pricking with a spur or spurs. Also transf.
| a 1591 H. Smith Wks. (1867) II. 211 This gall will not hold spurring. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, ii. iii. 58 Here come the Lords of Rosse and Willoughby, Bloody with spurring, fierie red with haste. 1607 Markham Cavel. ii. (1617) 74 These flancke spurrings,..are the most preposterous motions that can be seen in a horseman. 1708 Sewel ii, Prikkeling, a Pricking, a spurring on. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. v. iii, The tired nag..sticks in the middle of it;..and will proceed no further for spurring! 1893 F. C. Selous Trav. S.E. Africa 172, I gave my sulky horse a good spurring. |
| attrib. 1677 Lond. Gaz. No. 1170/4 A black Mare 15 hands high,..and on the off-side no hair in the spurring place. |
b. The action of stimulating, inciting, or urging.
| 1611 Cotgr., Stimulation, a pricking, or spurring forward; a prouoking, egging, instigating, vrging. 1617 Hieron Wks. II. 276 When a man is so clay-like,..and must haue a continuall spurring and prouoking,..it is a wofull thing. |
2. spurring-in, a mode of pruning fruit-trees in which side-shoots are shortened to a spur likely to produce fruit. Also attrib.
| 1829 Lindley Encycl. Plants 793 Hence the spurring-in method of pruning is the most successful in the production of fruit. 1846 Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 381 A mode of pruning by spurring-in,..as recommended by Mr. Griffin. 1852 G. W. Johnson Cottage Gard. Dict. 60 A regular series of these [side branches] should be left up the stem,..practising what is termed ‘spurring-in’ by our nurserymen. |
b. Similarly without in.
| 1844 Florist's Jrnl. (1846) V. 92 These evils are entirely obviated by short spurring, in doing which it is the practice..to cut them in to the one nearest the stem. 1852 G. W. Johnson Cottage Gard. Dict. 842/2 Spurring is cutting the lateral or side-shoots, so as to leave only a few buds in length of them projecting from the main branches. |
▪ III. ˈspurring, vbl. n.2 dial.
Also 9 sporring.
[f. spur v.2]
1. pl. The banns of marriage published in church.
| 1787 Grose Prov. Gloss., Spurrings, bans of marriage. 1829– in dial. glossaries, etc. (Yks., Lanc., Derby, Linc., Rutland, Nottingham, Cornwall). 1862 Life amongst Colliers 172 Our maids were comely and apt, the young colliers gallant, so many spurrins went from our house. |
2. (See quot.)
| 1888 T. North Bells & Bell Lore 94 At Barnoldby-le-Beck, Lea, and other places this ringing is called giving the [newly-wedded] couple their ‘spurrings’, or ‘sporrings’. |
▪ IV. spurring, ppl. a.
(ˈspɜːrɪŋ)
[f. spur v.1]
1. That spurs or pricks with a spur. Also fig. and transf.
| 1599 Middleton Micro-cynicon Wks. (Bullen) VIII. 135 A resolute ass! O for a spurring rider! 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch. To Rdr. 92 Hee without Cloake Is a Witt in Hutts, a pretty spurringe Cocke. 1819 Keats Otho i. iii. That unknown Mussulman After whose spurring heels he sent me forth. 1869 Ld. Lytton Orval 240 The spurring hour Posts to the bourne. 1881 J. F. T. Keane Journ. Medinah i. 15 The halters of such camels..are fitted with an ingenious spurring-curb. |
2. That impels, incites, or urges.
| 1648 J. Beaumont Psyche xxi. vii, Since by The spurring fervor of its natural Bent Above the third [stage] it aims. 1852 Disraeli Ld. G. Bentinck v. (1872) 61 So keen was the feeling of the Protectionists, and so spurring the point of honour. |