different between spur vs spud

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sp??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sp?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English spure, spore, from Old English spura, spora, from Proto-Germanic *spurô, from Proto-Indo-European *sper-, *sperw- (“to twitch, push, fidget, be quick”).

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. A rigid implement, often roughly y-shaped, that is fixed to one's heel for the purpose of prodding a horse. Often worn by, and emblematic of, the cowboy or the knight.

   Meronyms: rowel, prick

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 22:

     Two sorts of spurs seem to have been in use about the time of the Conquest, one called a pryck, having only a single point like the gaffle of a fighting cock; the other consisting of a number of points of considerable length, radiating from and revolving on a center, thence named the rouelle or wheel spur.

2. A jab given with the spurs.
   • 1832, The Atheneum (volume 31, page 493)

     I had hardly said the word, when Kit jumped into the saddle, and gave his horse a whip and a spur — and off it cantered, as if it were in as great a hurry to be married as Kit himself.

3. (figuratively) Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.
4. An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.
5. Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.
6. Roots, tree roots.
7. (geology) A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.
8. A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale to strip off the blubber.
9. (carpentry) A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.
10. (architecture) The short wooden buttress of a post.
11. (architecture) A projection from the round base of a column, occupying the angle of a square plinth upon which the base rests, or bringing the bottom bed of the base to a nearly square form. It is generally carved in leafage.
12. Ergotized rye or other grain.
13. A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.
14. (shipbuilding) A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.
15. (shipbuilding) A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.
16. (mining) A branch of a vein.
17. (rail transport) A very short branch line of a railway line.
18. (transport) A short branch road of a motorway, freeway or major road.
19. (botany) A short thin side shoot from a branch, especially one that bears fruit or, in conifers, the shoots that bear the leaves.

Derived terms

• spur gear
• spur-leather
• spur-of-the-moment
• spur road

Translations

Verb

spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)

1. (transitive) To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act V, Scene III, line 339:

     Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head! Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood; Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!

2. (transitive) To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object

   Synonyms: incite, stimulate, instigate, impel, drive; see also Thesaurus:incite

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene IV, line 4.

     My desire / (More sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth...
3. (transitive) To put spurs on.

4. (intransitive) To press forward; to travel in great haste.

Derived terms

• spur on

Translations

Etymology 2

See sparrow.

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. A tern.

Etymology 3

Short for spurious.

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. (electronics) A spurious tone, one that interferes with a signal in a circuit and is often masked underneath that signal.

Etymology 4

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. The track of an animal, such as an otter; a spoor.

Translations

Etymology 5

Verb

spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)

1. (obsolete, dialectal) Alternative form of speer.
   • 1638, Thomas Heywood, "The Rape of Lucrece. A true Roman Tragedy", in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood, Vol. V, John Pearson, 1874, pages 230 & 231.

   • The Pall Mall Magazine, Vol. 33, 1904, page 435.

Anagrams

• Prus, purs, surp

Middle English

Noun

spur

1. Alternative form of spore

Scots

Alternative forms

• sparra
• spug
• spuggie
• speug

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. sparrow

References

• “spur” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

English

Etymology

From Middle English spudde (“small knife”). Origin unknown; probably related to Danish spyd, Old Norse spjót (“spear”), German Spieß (“spear; spike; skewer”). Compare English spit (“sharp, pointed rod”). The use of the term for a potato was originally in British dialect and slang usage.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?d/
• enPR: sp?d
• Rhymes: -?d

Noun

spud (plural spuds)

1. (informal) A potato. [from 1845]
   • 1927, Boys' Life (May 1927, page 8)

     We were peeling spuds on afternoon detail back of the lodge at summer camp — Billy Dean and I, and two or three more — and as usual arguing about whether the camp work ought to be done that way or not […]

2. (informal) A hole in a sock.
   • 1958, M, K. Joseph, I'll Soldier No More: A Novel,

     He leans over to one side to get the light, as he darns a hole in the heel of a sock. He is getting pretty smart at it now, and no longer makes spuds in the sock to chafe his heels.

   • 1990, Ray Salisbury, Sweet Thursday: A Novel,

     He was getting tall too, and his trousers were short even though his turn-ups had been turned down, and he'd got a spud in his socks where his shoe rubbed where he trod over trying to walk bow-legged to look like a cowboy.

   • 2000, Christopher Nolan, The Banyan Tree: A Novel,

     His wife was darning a sock, running a needle and yarn across and back, over and under, up and down, gradually filling in the big spud-hole in her husband's sock.

   • 2007, Trevor Griffiths, Sam, Sam in Theatre Plays One,

     (Already becoming absorbed in his feet through the giant spud in his sock) Anyway, I'm er, I'm sorry. A quite unnecessary embarrassment for you. (He removes sock completely, begins rhythmic rubbing of webs)

3. (plumbing) A type of short nut (fastener) threaded on both ends.
4. (obsolete) Anything short and thick.
5. (obsolete, US, dialect) A piece of dough boiled in fat.
6. (slang, usually in the plural) A testicle.
7. (obsolete) A dagger. [from mid-15th c.]

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

8. A digging fork with three broad prongs.
9. A tool, similar to a spade, used for digging out weeds etc. [From 1660s.]
   • 1728, Jonathan Swift, A Pastoral Dialogue, 1910, William Browning (editor), The Poems of Jonathan Swift, Volume 2, 2004, Gutenberg eBook #13621,

     My love to Sheelah is more firmly fixt, / Than strongest weeds that grow these stones betwixt: / My spud these nettles from the stone can part; / No knife so keen to weed thee from my heart.

   • 1885, Richard Jefferies, After London: or Wild England, 2004 [1905], Gutenberg eBook #13944,

     Deprived of motion by the blow of the club, it can, on the other hand, be picked up without trouble and without the aid of a dog, and if not dead is despatched by a twist of the Bushman's fingers or a thrust from his spud. The spud is at once his dagger, his knife and fork, his chisel, his grub-axe, and his gouge. It is a piece of iron (rarely or never of steel, for he does not know how to harden it) about ten inches long, an inch and a half wide at the top or broadest end, where it is shaped and sharpened like a chisel, only with the edge not straight but sloping, and from thence tapering to a point at the other, the pointed part being four-sided, like a nail.

   • 1925, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves Takes Charge, Carry On, Jeeves, 2008, Arrow Books, page 19,

     A most respectable old Johnnie, don't you know. Doesn't do a thing nowadays but dig in the garden with a spud.

10. A barking spud; a long-handled tool for removing bark from logs.
11. (film, television) A short central rod in a lighting fixture, for attachment to the light.
    • 1991, Gerald Millerson, The Technique of Lighting for Television and Film (page 299)

      This spigot (spud) is used to support the lamp, and allows it to be turned from side to side. The spud fits into a socket in a bracket (receptable^[sic]) or a C-clamp. This fixture enables you to suspend the lighting fixture from an overhead bar […]

Derived terms

• sofa spud
• spud cocky
• spudger
• spud gun
• spudlike

Translations

Verb

spud (third-person singular simple present spuds, present participle spudding, simple past and past participle spudded)

1. (drilling) To begin drilling an oil well; to drill by moving the drill bit and shaft up and down, or by raising and dropping a bit.
   • 1911, Isaiah Bowman, United States Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 257: Well-Drilling Methods, page 46,

     A rope called the jerk line is attached to the wrist pin of the band-wheel crank, brought inside the derrick, and attached to the part of the drilling cable which extends from the crown pulley to the bull-wheel shaft by a curved metal slide called a spudding shoe. (See fig. 8.)

   • 1999, Steve Devereux, Drilling for Oil & Gas: A Nontechnical Guide, page 86,

     When a well is spudded, the drilling assembly is loosely tied to the guide wires with 1/2? manila rope.

   • 2008, Ruwan Rajapakse, Pile Design and Construction Rules of Thumb, page 367,

     Spudding is the process of lifting and dropping the pile constantly until the obstruction is broken into pieces. Obviously, spudding cannot be done with lighter piles (timber or pipe piles). Concrete piles and steel H-piles are good candidates for spudding.

   • 2008, J. K. Lasser, J.K. Lasser?s Your Income Tax: 2009, Professional Edition, page 238,

     Prepayments of drilling expenses are deductible by tax-shelter investors only if the well is “spudded” within 90 days after the close of the taxable year in which the prepayment was made, and the deduction is limited to the original amount of the investment.

2. (roofing) To remove the roofing aggregate and most of the bituminous top coating by scraping and chipping.
3. (camping) To set up a recreational vehicle (RV) at a campsite, typically by leveling the RV and connecting it to electric, water, and/or sewer hookups.

Derived terms

• spudding shoe

Related terms

• spudding (noun)

Proper noun

spud

1. A game for three or more players, involving the gradual elimination of players by throwing and catching a ball.

Anagrams

• Dsup, PDUs, PSDU, UDPs, dups, puds

Lushootseed

Etymology

From English spoon.

Noun

spud

1. spoon

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English spudde.

Noun

spud

1. a knife

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN