Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To reject with disdain or contempt. synonym: refuse.
  • intransitive verb Archaic To kick at or tread on disdainfully.
  • intransitive verb To reject something contemptuously.
  • noun A contemptuous rejection.
  • noun A kick.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A blow with the foot; a kick.
  • noun A stumble; a fall.
  • noun Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
  • noun In mining, one of the narrow pillars or connections left between the holings, and not cut away until just before the withdrawal of the sprags.
  • noun A spur.
  • noun A piece of wood having one end inserted in the ground, and the other nailed at an angle to a gate-post, for the purpose of strengthening or supporting it.
  • To kick against; kick; drive back or away with the foot.
  • To strike against.
  • To reject with disdain; scorn to receive or consort with; treat with contempt.
  • To kick.
  • To dash the foot against something: light on something unexpectedly; stumble.
  • To dash; rush.
  • To manifest disdain or contempt in rejecting anything; make contemptuous opposition; manifest contempt or disdain in resistance.
  • To spur.
  • noun An evil spirit.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To kick or toss up the heels.
  • intransitive verb To manifest disdain in rejecting anything; to make contemptuous opposition or resistance.
  • transitive verb To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick.
  • transitive verb To reject with disdain; to scorn to receive or accept; to treat with contempt.
  • noun rare A kick; a blow with the foot.
  • noun Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
  • noun (Mining) A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, intransitive To reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
  • verb transitive To reject something by pushing it away with the foot.
  • verb transitive To waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity)
  • noun An act of spurning; a scornful rejection.
  • noun A kick; a blow with the foot.
  • noun obsolete Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
  • noun A body of coal left to sustain an overhanding mass.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb reject with contempt

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English spurnen, from Old English spurnan; see sperə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English spurnen, spornen, from Old English spurnan ("to strike against, kick, spurn, reject; stumble"), from Proto-Germanic *spurnanan (“to tread, kick, knock out”), from Proto-Indo-European *sper-, *sperw- (“to twitch, push, fidget, be quick”). Cognate with Scots spurn ("to strike, push, kick"), German anspornen ("to spur on"), Icelandic sporna, spyrna ("to kick"), Latin spernō ("despise, distain, scorn"). Related to spur.

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