spring – English noun declension

English noun forms of spring

Noun: spring
Singularspring
Pluralsprings

Sample Sentences

  • The pris'ner with a spring from prison broke;
  • Then stretch'd his feather'd fans with all his might,
  • And to the neighb'ring maple wing'd his flight. [1700, John Dryden, The Cock and the Fox:]
  • Spring is the time of the year most species reproduce.
  • You can visit me in the spring, when the weather is bearable.
  • No joy the blowing season gives,
  • ⁠The herald melodies of spring,
  • ⁠But in the songs I love to sing
  • A doubtful gleam of solace lives. [1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXVIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 59:]
  • Into the sea, you and me / All these years and no one heard / I'll show you in spring, it's a treacherous thing [1983, Robert Smith, “The Lovecats”, performed by The Cure:]
  • Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals. [2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2013, page 172:]
  • Chinese New Year always occurs in January or February but is called the "Spring Festival" throughout East Asia because it is reckoned as the beginning of their spring.
  • I spent my spring holidays in Morocco.
  • The spring issue will be out next week.
  • ...and it came to passe about the spring of the day, that Samuel called Saul to the top of the house... [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 9:26:]
  • O how this spring of love resembleth
  • The uncertain glory of an April day. [c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:]
  • Arab Spring
  • Prague Spring
  • Solidarity grew from the Lenin Shipyard here and threatened a Polish spring before martial law was imposed in 1981. [1989 May, Priit J. Vesilind, “The Baltic: Arena of Power”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 627:]
  • This beer was brewed with pure spring water.
  • We jumped so hard the bed springs broke.
  • He had warped round with the springs on his cable, and had recommenced his fire upon the Aurora. [1836, Frederick Marryat, Mr. Midshipman Easy, volume III, page 72:]
  • You should put a couple of springs onto the jetty to stop the boat moving so much.
  • Spring is likewise a rope reaching diagonally from the stern of a ship to the head of another which lies along-side or a-breast of her. [1769, William Falconer, An Universal Dictionary of the Marine, s.v:]
  • ‘Springs’ are the ropes used on a ship that is alongside a berth to prevent fore and aft movements. [2007 January 26, Business Times::]
  • It is sometimes the practice of the fowler to delay his performances a few days when there are only a small spring of teal; this delay frequently proves highly judicious, for when undisturbed they assemble at decoys in great numbers. [2013, H. Folkard, The Wildfowler - A Treatise on Fowling, Ancient and Modern, Read Books Limited:]
  • A peep over the bank, and a "spring" of teal are up, but only to divide into two, and I mark down the larger one into open water some hundred and fifty yards off. [1894, “Humber Shore-Shooting”, in Baily's Magazine of Sports Pastimes, volume 64, page 289:]
  • Of all the prizes with which a wild-fowl shooter could wish to meet, a spring of Teal is amongst the first. [1870 February 1, “The Teal”, in John Eller Taylor, Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, editor, Hardwicke's Science-gossip, Robert Hardwicke, page 35:]
  • A spar is said to be sprung, when it is cracked or split,... and the crack is called a spring. [1846, Arthur Young, Nautical Dictionary, page 292:]
  • the spring of a bow
  • Heav'ns what a spring was in his Arm, to throw:
  • How high he held his Shield, and rose at ev'ry blow! [1697, John Dryden, Virgil's Aeneis, Bk. xi, ll. 437–8]
  • Mrs Durbeyfield, excited by her song, trod the rocker with all the spring that was left in her after a long day's seething in the suds. [1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 30:]
  • As wel the singers as the players on instruments shall bee there: all my springs are in thee. [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 87:7:]
  • Such a man can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth him, he can patiently suffer all things with cheerfull submission and resignation to the Divine Will. He has a secret Spring of spiritual Joy, and the continual Feast of a good Conscience within, that forbid him to be miserable. [1693, The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism..., Richard Bentley, Sermon 1:]
  • […] discover, at least in some degree, the secret springs and principles, by which the human mind is actuated in its operations? [1748, David Hume, Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals, London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, §9:]
  • ‘Have you ever contemplated, Adrian, the phenomenon of springs?’
  • ‘Coils, you mean?’
  • ‘Not coils, Adrian, no. Coils not. Think springs of water. Think wells and spas and sources. Well-springs in the widest and loveliest sense. Jerusalem, for instance, is a spring of religiosity. One small town in the desert, but the source of the world’s three most powerful faiths. […] Religion seems to bubble from its sands.’ [1991 September, Stephen Fry, “[Prelude to chapter 1]”, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section, page 1:]
  • Our Author ſhuns by vulgar Springs to move / The Hero's Glory, or the Virgin's Love; […] [1712 (date written), [Alexander] Pope, “Prologue, by Mr. Pope. Spoken by Mr. [Robert] Wilks.”, in [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC:]
  • The firstand spring the fiddle did play
  • Hey wi the gay and the grinding
  • Said, "Ye'll drown my sister, as she's dune me."
  • At the bony bony bows of London [(Can we date this quote?), stanza 18, in The Bonny Bows o London (as collected by Buchan in 'Ancient ballads and songs of the north of Scotland'):]

Etymology

From Middle English spryng (“a wellspring, tide, branch, sunrise, kind of dance or blow, ulcer, snare, flock”); partly from Old English spring (“wellspring, ulcer”), from Proto-West Germanic *spring, from Proto-Germanic *springaz (“a wellspring, fount”); and partly from Old English spryng (“a jump”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprungi, from Proto-Germanic *sprungiz (“a jump”). Further senses derived from the verb and from clippings of day-spring, springtime, spring tide, etc. Its sense as the season, first attested in a work predating 1325, gradually replaced Middle English lenten, lente, from Old English lencten (“spring, Lent”) as that word became more specifically liturgical. Compare fall. See: Middle English Nouns 'spryng', Old English Nouns 'spring'.

Verbs referencing "spring"

Finnish Nouns springi, Dutch Nouns springveer.