spring-time
Also springtime, spring time.
[spring n.1 6 b.]
1. The season of spring; = spring-tide 1.
| 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. (W. de W.) iii. xxiv. 73 In the sprynge tyme the calde is temperat and in herueste also. 1538 Elyot, Vernus, freshe, as the spring time. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 137 b, In the begynning of the spryng tyme. 1600 Pory tr. Leo's Africa iii. 121 This towne is so durtie in the spring-time, that it would irke a man to walke the streetes. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 769 As Bees In spring time..Poure forth thir populous youth about the Hive In clusters. 1710 Addison Tatler No. 218 ¶9, I look upon the whole Country in Spring-time as a spacious Garden. 1768 Holdsworth Virgil 121 It is the custom..to hough the land in the spring-time. 1855 Poultry Chron. III. 422 This [illness in bees] appears most frequently in the spring time. 1864 Bowen Logic ix. 300 How the green herb in the spring-time absorbs inorganic matter and assimilates it to itself. |
2. a. The earlier period of a person's life; youth.
| 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, ii. iii. 47, I..now melt with wo, That Winter should cut off our Spring-time so. |
| 1853 Talfourd Castilian i. i, In this season, which renews their spring-time. 1866 S. B. James Duty & Doctrine (1871) 65 So ill-advised as to grudge spring-time its rounded cheek and supple limb. 1877 Black Green Past. ii, She might have been taken for the very type of English girlhood in its sweetest springtime. |
b. A time or period comparable in some way to spring. Usu.
const. of.
| a 1764 Lloyd Song Poet. Wks. 1774 II. 36 The spring-time of love then employ. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 512 In vain they push'd inquiry to the birth And spring-time of the world. 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. vi. 118 With all its faults and shortcomings it was the spring-time of their national existence. 1897 Jessopp Donne ii. 44 Notes..addressed to the great lady in the..happy springtime of her married life. |
3. attrib., as
spring-time call,
spring-time day, etc.
| 1563 B. Googe Eglogs i. (Arb.) 35 My yeares be great, I wyl be gone, for spryngtyme nyghts be colde. 1842 S. Lover Handy Andy xliv, The old lady..was hailed with a chorus of ‘Cuckoo!’ by the multitude, one half of which ran after the coach..shouting forth the spring-time call. 1838 Mrs. Browning To Miss Mitford 6 Overleaning them this springtime day. 1886 Winchell Walks Geol. Field 280 It was during the spring-time empire of water that the Great Lakes stood at their highest levels. |