spurn
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Middle English spurnen, spornen, from Old English spurnan (“to strike against, kick, spurn, reject; stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *spurnaną (“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.
Pronunciation [edit]
Verb [edit]
spurn (third-person singular simple present spurns, present participle spurning, simple past and past participle spurned)
- (transitive, intransitive) To reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
- (transitive) To reject something by pushing it away with the foot.
- (transitive) To waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity)
- 2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, BBC Sport:
- Marouane Chamakh then spurned a great chance to kill the game off when he ran onto Andrey Arshavin's lofted through ball but shanked his shot horribly across the face of goal.
- 2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, BBC Sport:
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to reject disdainfully
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to reject by pushing away with the foot
Noun [edit]
spurn (plural spurns)
- An act of spurning; a scornful rejection.
- A kick; a blow with the foot.
- Milton
- What defence can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn?
- Milton
- (obsolete) Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
- Shakespeare
- The insolence of office and the spurns / That patient merit of the unworthy takes.
- Shakespeare
- A body of coal left to sustain an overhanding mass.
Translations [edit]
an act of spurning; a scornful rejection
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