| 释义 |
▪ I. spire, n.1|spaɪə(r)|
Forms: 1, 4–5 spir, 3– spire, 4, 6–7 spier (7 spiere), 5–6 spyre.
[OE. spír, = WFris. spier, NFris. spîr, MDu. and Du. spier, MLG. spîr, spyer, spyr, MHG. spîr (G. spier, spiere), Da. spire, MSw. and Sw. spira, sprout, shoot, sprig, etc. Cf. spear n.2]
1. a. A stalk or stem of a plant, esp. one of a tall and slender growth. Now rare.
a1000Sax. Leechd. II. 266 Wiþ lungen adle, hindberᵹean leaf & hreodes spir. 1513Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 1603 There was in pycture..Our lorde apperynge in busshe flammynge as fyre, And nothynge therof brent, lefe, tree, nor spyre. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §20 Dockes have a brode lefe, and diuers high spyres, and very small sede in the toppe. 1601Holland Pliny II. 23 Raddishes eat the more pleasantly, if their leaues be cropt off before the master stem or spire be growne big. a1722Lisle Husb. (1757) 136, I observed the wheat on the ground, and that the first, or capital branch, consisted of an upright spire, between two leaves. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 414 The green leaves of corn, which protect and assist to draw up nourishment into the spire. 1815Shelley Alastor 528 Tall spires of windlestrae Threw their thin shadows down the rugged slope.
fig.1865Ruskin Sesame ii. 194 Among those sweet living things, whose new courage..is starting up in strength of goodly spire.
b. The tapering top of a tree; the portion of the main stem which shoots up above the branches.
1657Thornley Daphnis & Chloe 162 One Apple hang'd upon the very top of the Spire of the Tree. 1820Shelley Orpheus 27 There stands a group of cypresses; not such As, with a graceful spire and stirring life, Pierce the pure heaven. 1875T. Laslett Timber 72 No tops to be received, except the spire and such other top or limb as may be grown on the main piece.
c. A flower-spike.
1850Tennyson In Mem. lxxxiii, Bring orchis, bring the foxglove spire. 1852M. Arnold Empedocles i. ii. 4 The giant spires of yellow bloom Of the sun-loving gentian. 1874Symonds Sk. Italy & Greece (1898) I. viii. 169 Meadows, where..asphodel is pale with spires of faintest rose.
2. (Now south or s.w. dial.)
a. collect. Reeds; reed-like coarse tall-growing plants or sedges (see later quots.).
a1250Owl & Night. 18 In ore waste þicke hegge, Imeind mid spire & grene segge. 1388Wyclif Exod. ii. 3 [She] puttide hym forth in a place of spier of the brenke of the flood. ― Isaiah xviii. 1 margin, Papirus is a kynde of spier. 1578Lyte Dodoens 514 The common Reede or spier groweth in standing waters... This plante is called in..English Common Pole Reede, Spier, or Cane Reede. 1796W. H. Marshall Rur. Econ. W. Eng. I. 330 Spire (Arundo), reed. 1856Bromefield Flora Vect. 583 Common Sea-reed..is known only as Spire, a term applied by the islanders to all the larger-spiked and close-panicled grasses, Carices and Typhæ. 1865R. Hunt Pop. Rom. W. Eng. (1871) Ser. i. 201 Before the reed-like plant called by the present inhabitants the spire was planted.
b. A single plant of this; a reed.
1388Wyclif Job viii. 11 Whether a rusche may lyue with out moysture? ethir a spier [v.r. reed] may wexe with out watir? 1847Halliw., Spires, is chiefly applied to the tall species of sedge..; it is likewise used of the tall leaves of the common yellow iris... Isle of Wight. 1863Wise New Forest 287 The phrase ‘spire-bed’..is very common, meaning a particular field, near where the ‘spires’ grow.
c. Mining. (See quot.)
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2276/2 Spire, the tube carrying the train to the charge in the blast-hole. Also called the reed or rush, as the spires of grass or rushes are used for the purpose.
3. a. A young or tender shoot or sprout; esp. the rudimentary shoot of a seed; the acrospire of grain; = spear n.2 2.
13..in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LXXXI. 83/18 Whon greyne of whete is cast in grounde..þerof springeþ spires I-nowe. c1374Chaucer Troylus ii. 1335 As an oke comyth of a littil spire. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xi. (Bodl. MS.), Þe spire of þe lely springeþ oute of the side of þe cloue and nouȝt oute of þee ende. c1440Pallad. on Husb. iii. 1034 When their spir up goon is,.. Let plaunte hem ther. 1604Power Exp. Philos. i. 65 The Grains of Barly being moistned with water,..the fermentation and heat presently appears,..and therefore it shoots forth into Spires. 1670Evelyn Sylva (ed. 2) 83 [They] place the ends of them in water 'till towards the Spring, by which season they will have contracted a swelling spire or knurr. 1766Compl. Farmer s.v. Malt, At this time, the spire should be near piercing through the outer skin of the barley. 1826Art of Brewing (ed. 2) 7 Nature intended this for the future support of the spire.
fig.1377Langl. P. Pl. B. ix. 100 Sitthe to spille speche þat spyre is of grace.
b. A blade or shoot of grass, etc.; = spear n.2 2 b. (Freq. c 1660–1720; now rare.)
1646Bp. Hall Balm Gilead (1650) 372 What if there were as many Devils in the air, as there are spires of grasse on the earth? 1675Traherne Chr. Ethics 60 Every grain of dust,..every spire of grass is wholly illuminated thereby. 1701Stanhope Pious Breath. iii. v. (1704) 182 [Thy hand] only could produce the least spire of grass. 1724Welton Disc. 433 Look but upon a spire of grass. a1729Congreve Ovid's Art Love Wks. 1730 III. 320 Pointed Spires of Flax, when green, will Ink supply. 1849O. A. Brownson Wks. VII. 18 We know that a spire of grass grows, but how it grows we know not. 1867F. Francis Angling vi. 204 The Wren⁓tail..may be seen in the fine sunny weather sunning itself on the long spires of grass.
c. U.S. Similarly of hair; = spear n.2 2 c.
1868L. M. Alcott Lit. Women xv, I'd do as much for our Jimmy any day if I had a spire of hair worth selling.
4. A long slender and tapering growth in a plant:
a. The awn or beard of grain.
1530Palsgr. 274 Spyre of corne, barbe du ble. 1877N.W. Linc. Gloss. 234 Spires, the horns of barley.
†b. The stigma of the crocus, from which saffron is obtained. Obs.—1
1633Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. 319 The saffron yields an odoriferous and cordial spire, whiles both the flower and the root are unpleasing.
5. An elongated or pointed shoot or tongue of fire or flame.
c1450Mirk's Festial 102 And when he come done to þe pepull,..two spyres of fyre stoden out of hys hed lyke two hornes. 1621G. Sandys Ovid ii. (1626) 27 Parnassus grones beneath two flaming spires. 1667Milton P.L. i. 223 On each hand the flames Drivn backward slope their pointing spires. 1812Examiner 21 Sept. 597/1 Spires of smoking flame. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 993 If the gas be copious, the flame elongates into a sharp spire. 1877E. R. Conder Basis Faith ix. 383 An immense instinct in his nature points upward, like a spire of flame.
6. a. A conical, tapering, pointed body or part of something; a sharp point.
1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. Defin., They are lyke in foorme to two such cantles ioyned togither..: or els it is called a rounde spire, or stiple fourme. Ibid., A square spire. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. (Arb.) 108 Of the Spire or Taper called Pyramis. 1632G. Sandys Ovid i. 22 The whole skie being all the night long in the beames of the Sun (that little spire, the shadowe of the Earth excepted). 1658tr. Porta's Nat. Magic 393 Make.. [a] vessel in the fashion of a Tunnel, or a round Pyramis;..let the spire of it..be open. 1725Pope Odyss. ix. 386 The narrow'r end I sharpen'd to a spire. 1813Shelley Q. Mab iv. 11 Icicles..So stainless, that their white and glittering spires Tinge not the moon's pure beam. 1885Harper's Mag. Apr. 703 She..directed the capping of her hemp-stacks till the spires were..symmetric.
b. A branch or prong of a deer's horn. (Cf. speer n.2) Also fig.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 119, I haue seene the hornes to haue seauen spires or braunches. Ibid. 124 At one yeare old they haue nothing but small bunches..; at three yeares they grow forked into two spieres. 1641Milton Ch. Govt. i. vi, Haughty prelates..with their forked mitres,..instead of healing up the gashes of the Church,..fall to gore one another with their sharp spires.
c. A metal spike or rod. rare.
c1710C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 52 A little wall of a yard High of free Stone very ffine wrought, on which are to be Iron railes and spires. 1750in D. Gilbert Paroch. Hist. Cornwall (1838) III. 430 One of those rocks..with an iron spire at the top thereof.
7. a. A tall, slender, sharp-pointed summit, peak, rock, or column.
1586Whitney Choice Emblems 1 A mightie Spyre, whose toppe dothe pierce the skie. 1599Hakluyt Voy. II. 202 About an Harquebuz-shotte from Matarea is a spire of great height like to that at Rome. 1601Holland Pliny II. 577 The ægyptians..speake much of these two Pyramides, the mighty spires and steeples whereof..do arise out of the very water. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 22 Mæollis rises very high with a Peake or Pyramidall Spire. 1749Phil. Trans. XLVI. 269 The whole Surface of the Rock shall rise into Points or Spires. 1833Tennyson Dream Fair Women xlvii, All night the splinter'd crags that wall the dell With spires of silver shine. 1847― Princ. iv. 262 Like a spire of land that stands apart Cleft from the main. 1855Orr's Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat. 143 The spires, or needle-shaped detached rocks, called in Switzerland aiguilles.
b. poet. A pyramidal heap or pile of something.
1818Keats Endym. i. 222 On the shrine he heaped a spire Of teeming sweets, enkindling sacred fire.
8. A tall structure rising from a tower, roof, etc., and terminating in a slender point; esp. the tapering portion of the steeple of a cathedral or church, usually carried to a great height and constituting one of the chief architectural features of the building. (Cf. spear n.2 1.)
So MLG. spyre (1392), Sw. spira, Da. and Norw. spir.
1596Lodge Wits Miserie B iiij b, His beard is cut like the spier of Grantham steeple. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. 739 An high Towre in the middest and two Spires at the West end. 1643Baker Chron., Eliz. 117 The Spire of the Cathedrall Church of Pauls being..two hundred and sixty [feet] from the Square Steeple where it was placed. 1700Dryden Pal. & Arc. i. 215 The Temples crown'd With golden Spires. 1727Swift Baucis & Philemon Wks. 1755 III. ii. 33 The chimney widen'd, and grew higher, Became a steeple with a spire. 1765Sterne Tr. Shandy vii. v, The steeple, which has a spire to it, is placed in the middle of the church. 1815Scott Guy M. iv, The spire of a church..indicated the situation of a village. 1866M. Arnold Thyrsis iii, And that sweet city with her dreaming spires,..Lovely all times she lies, lovely to-night. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. v. I. 310 Queenly Lübeck had not yet begun to cover her peninsula with her stately spires, her soaring gateways.
transf.1878Stevenson Inland Voy. 77 My consciousness should be diffused abroad in all the forest, and give a common heart to that assembly of green spires.
9. fig. The highest point, summit, or top of something.
1600J. Dowland 2nd Bk. Songs ii. B ij b, From the highest spire of contentment, my fortune is throwne. 1607Shakes. Cor. i. ix. 24 To silence that, Which to the spire, and top of prayses vouch'd, Would seeme but modest. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. v. vi. §17. 36 The Romanes that stroue to mount hie on the spires of their intended glory.
10. attrib. and Comb.
a. In senses 1–3, as spire-end; spire-bed, mint, reed, dial. (see quots.). Also spire-grass.
a1722Lisle Husb. (1757) 207 The germen, or the spire⁓end of the barley. 1863Prior Plant-n., Spear-mint or Spire-mint, from its spiry, not capitate inflorescence. Ibid., Spires, or Spire-reed, the pool reed, Arundo phragmites. 1863Wise New Forest Gloss., Spire-bed, a place where the ‘spires’, that is, the reed-canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea), grow.
b. In sense 8, as spire-growth, spire-passion, spire-top; spire-light, a window in a spire; spire-roof, a steeply sloping roof rising up into a spire. See also spire-steeple.
1842Penny Cycl. XXII. 356 The cathedrals of Worms and Gelnhausen..exhibit many varieties of spires, or rather spire-roofs, springing up from gables at their base. 1846Archaeol. Jrnl. II. 3 The spire itself, at about half its height, is encircled by spire-lights. 1853C. Wickes Illustr. Spires & Towers Eng. (title-p.), The Architecture of the Middle Ages, and its Spire-Growth. 1882Stevenson New Arab. Nts. II. 144 The flag of England, fluttering on the spire⁓top, grew ever fainter and fainter. 1944Blunden Cricket Country v. 64 There is only one person known to me who quite equals my spire-passion.
c. With past pples. or adjs. (chiefly instrumental and similative), as spire-adorned, spire-crowned, spire-shaped, spire-topped adjs.; spire-like, spire-straight adjs.
1804J. Grahame Sabbath (1808) 32 He toiled up the spire⁓topt hill. 1840Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. III. 32/1 This..is covered by a very steep, or spire-shaped roof. 1879W. Carleton Farm Ballads 87 The turreted, spire-adorned city. 1885F. P. Warren & Cleverly Wand. Beetle 56 The famous Roche à Bayard, rising almost sheer from the river, soars to its spire-like peak. 1893Daily News 27 Apr. 5/5 Each corner is adorned with a spire-crowned pavilion. 1933C. Day Lewis Magnetic Mountain 26 There, as a candle's beam Stands firm and will not waver Spire-straight in a close chamber.
▪ II. spire, n.2 Chiefly Sc. and north. dial.
Forms: 4–6 spyre, 5 spyr, spyer, spierre, 7 spier, 5, 7– spire.
[app. of Continental origin, corresponding in sense 1 to ON. spíra (Norw. and Sw. spira, Da. spire), LG. spiere, spier, MDu. spier (rare), NFris. spîr, WFris. spier, spjirre. The original locality of the word, and its relation to spire n.1, are not clear.]
†1. A spar or pole of timber; a bar or moderately long piece of wood. Obs. (Cf. spar n.1 1–3.)
1392Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 115 In iij spyres emp. de Joh. de Morpath pro skaffald, 15d. c1400Gamelyn 503 Gamelyn spreyniþ holi water with an oken spire. c1400Laud Troy Bk. 17170 [They] spered the ȝates wel and faste With many a spire that wel wolde laste. 1419Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 144 Et in ij spyrys de esch emt. pro reparacione unius domus,..5d. 1470Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) 339 Noo freman [shall] goo without the citte to by hides, tallow, spirys, bordes. 1609Holland Amm. Marcell. 221 There lyeth foorth farther out a fouresquare beame or spire.
†b. The pole or shaft of a chariot. Also attrib.
1609Holland Amm. Marcell. 222 From the very midst of these ropes there riseth forth a beame of wood overthwart, and after the fashion of a yoke spire or tiller erected. 1610― Camden's Brit. (1637) 29 They were wont to..runne along the spire-pole and beame of the chariot.
2. A young tree suitable for making into a spar; a sapling. Also attrib.
1392Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 116 In xxxij spyres emp. de Will. Mayllour, 16s. 4d. Et in eisdem prosternandis, 7d. 1543Mem. Fountains (Surtees) 413 [Survey of woods], Young oke spyres,..small ashe spyres. 1620N. Riding Rec. II. 234 For cutting and stealing in Watlas Springe, two ash⁓spires. 1634Bp. Hall Contempl., N.T. iv. xi, Like a wood new felled, that hath some few spires left for standers. 1703Lond. Gaz. No. 3975/4 Persons having any small young Spire Elm Timber to dispose of. 1707Mortimer Husb. 394 Many times a Spire Elm will begin to grow hollow at the bottom when any of its Roots happen to perish. 1788W. H. Marshall Yorksh. II. 355 Spires, timber stands (not common). 1828in Carr Craven Gloss. 1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Spires, young trees that shoot up a considerable height before they branch out and form a head. 1876Davidson's Precedents V. i. 225 All timber and other trees, pollards, spires, and saplings.
▪ III. spire, n.3|spaɪə(r)|
Also 6 spyre.
[a. F. spire (= It. spira, Sp. and Pg. espira), or ad. L. spīra, ad. Gr. σπεῖρα coil, twist, winding.]
1. One of the series of complete convolutions forming a coil or spiral.
a. One of the sinuous folds or windings of a serpent, etc.; a coil. Chiefly in pl.
1572J. Jones Bathes Ayde ii. 14 Y⊇ pypes did resemble the Spyres of a Dragon. 1608Topsell Serpents 236 Some⁓times also they [i.e. serpents] sette vp such a Spire aboue the water, that a boate or little Barke without sayles may pass thorow the same. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 502 [The Serpent] erect Amidst his circling Spires, that on the grass Floted redundant. 1700Dryden Fables, Alexander's Feast 29 A dragon's fiery form bely'd the god: Sublime on radiant spires he rode. 1712–4Pope Rape Lock iv. 43 Now glaring fiends, and snakes on rolling spires. 1820L. Hunt Indicator No. 22 (1822) I. 175 Tired out at length, they trail their spires, and gasp. 1868Browning Ring & Bk. v. 1959 There was the reptile,..Renewing its detested spire and spire Around me.
b. In general or technical use.
1608Topsell Serpents 150 The humour about the vitall spire [sc. the bowels]. 1634T. Johnson Parey's Wks. xiv. v. (1678) 325 If on the third day..the spires or windings [of the bandage] be found more loose. a1661Fuller Worthies, Lond. ii. (1662) 194 With anfractuous spires, and cocleary turnings about it. 1774Pennant Tour Scotl. in 1772, 295 A great ox-horn,—the arm was twisted round its spires. 1822Shelley Fragm. Unf. Drama 196 The plant..trailing its quaint spires Along the garden and across the lawn. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 473 Rifles should not be too deeply indented;..and the spires should be truly parallel. 1870Rep. Smithson. Instit. 1869, 8 The center of a coil of many spires of fine wire forming part of the galvanic circuit.
2. A spiral; a series of spiral curves or coils.
1611B. Jonson Catiline's Consp. ii. i, Ful. Binde my hair vp... Gal. Will you ha't i' the globe, or spire? 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Spiral, 'Tis called from its Inventor, Archimedes's Spire, or Helix. 1761Brit. Mag. II. 642 Of those perfect spires which lie in the same plane, there are two sorts. The first contains those curves whose spaces, or the distances between each circumvolution, are equal, commonly called Archimedes' spire. 1801Shaw Gen. Zool. II. ii. 391 The principal distinction of the Spanish Sheep is the fineness of the fleece, and the horizontally extended spire of the horns. 1887D. Maguire Massage (ed. 4) 114 These frictions are applied in every possible direction, now in a rectangular way, now obliquely describing spires and concentric..curves.
3. A curl or wreath of smoke, etc.
1699Garth Dispens. 7 Aromatick Clouds in Spires ascend. 1716Cheyne Philos. Princ. Nat. Relig. i. 65 Air seems to consist of Spires contorted into small Spheres. 1769Phil. Trans. LIX. 334 There was not a spire of smoke to be perceived.
†4. As the name of a shell. Obs.—1
1681Grew Musæum i. vi. i. 132 The Level-Whirle, or the Spire.
5. Conch. The upper convoluted portion of a spiral shell, consisting of all the whorls except the body-whorl.
1822J. Parkinson Outl. Oryctol. 150 A shield-formed, subconical univalve; no spire. 1851G. F. Richardson Geol. (1855) 240 The spire forms a very important feature in the univalves, and on its being raised, flattened, concealed, or reversed, depend many of the generic and specific distinctions of the shells. 1870Rolleston Anim. Life 51 The greater part of the shell has been removed, but a part of the spire has been left.
6. attrib. and Comb., as spire-shell, spire-ward adj.; spire-bearer Conch., a spirifer.
1713Petiver Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ ix, Thread listed Spire-shell. 1880Linn. Soc. Jrnl. XV. 104 A broader furrow, in the bottom of which runs the suture on the spire⁓ward side of a fine rounded thread. 1881Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. 265 The Spire-Bearers. The name..is derived from the spiral shape assumed by the calcareous labial appendages which nearly fill the interior of the dorsal valve.
▪ IV. † spire, n.4 Sc. Obs.
= speer n.1
1768Ross Helenore 136 I's no seek near the fire,—Let me but rest my weary banes, Behind backs at the spire. 1806R. Jamieson Pop. Ballads II. 406 The spire in a cottage, is properly the stem or leg of an earth-fast couple, reaching from the floor to the top of the wall.
▪ V. spire, n.5 rare.
Var. of spayard.
The form may be due to spire n.1 6 b.
1856‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Rur. Sports i. x. 82 The Brocket has only small projections, called knobbers, with small brow antlers; the Spire a brow antler [etc.]. 1886Elworthy W. Som. Word-bk. 700 Spire,..a male deer of three years old.
▪ VI. spire, n.6 Coal-mining.
(See quot.)
1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-m. 231 Spires, coal of a hard, dull, slaty nature, and difficult to break up.
▪ VII. spire
Sc. variant of speer n.4 (spray).
▪ VIII. spire, v.1|spaɪə(r)|
Also 5–6 spyre, 6 spyer.
[f. spire n.1 Cf. Norw. and Sw. spira, Du. spire, in sense 1.]
1. intr. Of seeds, grain, etc.: To send forth or develop shoots, esp. the first shoot or acrospire; to germinate, sprout. Also with out. Now rare or Obs. (Cf. spear v.2)
c1325Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 158 Ben germée, [wel atome (? acome); v.r.] spired. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xliii. (Tollem. MS.), Many men hangen oynones and garlek in þe smoke ouer þe fyre,..for þey schulde nouȝt spire and growe. Ofte oynones and garlek spireþ, þouȝe þey be nouȝt in erþe. c1440Pallad. on Husb. iii. 1034 Now curneles of mixe hit is to keste In molde in sum vessell, so fele attonys As wel may spire. 1471Ripley Comp. Alch. iii. xvii. in Ashm. (1652) 143 Then shall thy seeds both roote and spyre. 1577Harrison England ii. vi. 95 b/2 The workeman not suffring it [malting barley]..to take any heate, whereby the bud ende shoulde spire. 1679Evelyn Sylva (ed. 3) 8 If they [i.e. seeds] spire out before you sow them, be sure you commit them to the earth before the Sprout grows dry. 1728Phil. Trans. XXXV. 569 As they [crocus roots] then begin to spire, and are ready to shew themselves above Ground. 1765Museum Rust. III. 223 There is a sure disappointment in buying such grain, as the kerns will spire at different times.
transf.1582Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 27 Thee Troian Cæsar shal spire fro this auncetrye regal.
†b. trans. To produce; to put forth. Obs. rare.
1590Spenser F.Q. iii. v. 52 In..race Of woman kind it fairest flowre doth spire, And beareth fruit of honour and all chast desire. 1591― Ruins Time Ded., The seede of most entire loue..; which taking roote..would in their riper strength..[have] spired forth fruit of more perfection.
2. intr. Of plants, corn, etc.: To run up into a tall stem, stalk, or spike; to grow upwards instead of developing laterally. Now dial.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxxvi. (Bodl. MS.), Ȝif þei beþ i-suffred in þe bigynnynge to growe to swiþe þan þei spireþ & sedeþ to sone & leseþ to sone here fairenes & grene coloure. c1440Promp. Parv. 469 Spyryn, as corne and oþer lyke, spico. 1530Palsgr. 728, I spyer, as corne dothe whan it begynneth to waxe rype, je espie. a1618Sylvester New Jerusalem 31 Wks. (Grosart) II. 258 There, Mead and Field, spring, spire, and yeeld. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 163 As often as they spire, crop them. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Spire, to grow up into an Ear, as Corn does. 1828Carr Craven Gloss., Spire, to shoot up luxuriantly. 1841Hartshorne Salop. Ant. Gloss., Spire, to grow rapidly, shoot upwards quickly. 1894Heslop Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., A tree or plant which shoots out in length and not proportionately in breadth is said to spire.
3. To rise or shoot up into a spire or spire-shaped form; to rise or extend to a height in the manner of a spire; to mount or soar aloft. Also with up.
a. Of flames or fire.
1591Spenser Ruins Rome 220 As ye see huge flames spred diuerslie, Gathered in one vp to the heauens to spyre. 1652N. Culverwel Lt. Nat. i. xviii. (1661) 163 The Candle of the Lord;..'tis fain to spire up, and climbe up..in a Pyramidal form. 1816J. Hodgson in J. Raine Mem. (1857) I. 181 The flame of its wick spired slightly into length. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 993 If the tip begins to spire, he drops down on one knee, and holding the candle near the pavement, gradually raises it up. 1867G. Macdonald Disciple, etc. 53 Each ripple waves a flickering fire..; They laugh and flash, and leap and spire.
b. Of edifices, rocks, etc.
1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 60 A square Minaret that spires into a Pyramid. 1748Anson's Voy. i. vii. 74 These rocks terminate in a vast number of ragged points, which spire up to a prodigious height. 1790Pennant London (1813) 581 They spire into very elegant pinnacles. 1818Milman Samor 308 Sudden around 'gan spire the mountain tops. 1872Tennyson Gareth & Lynette 302 A city..Which Merlin's hand..had touch'd, and everywhere..tipt with lessening peak And pinnacle, and had made it spire to heaven.
c. Of leaves, branches, or trees.
1707Mortimer Husb. 330 It will be convenient..to leave a leading Branch near the top to spire up and cover the wound. 1712tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 136 The leaves only grow at the Top longwise, pointed as those of the Flower-de-lis, spiring, and opposite one to the other. 1798Coleridge Picture 115 The crowded firs Spire from thy shores, and stretch across thy bed. 1870Baring-Gould In Exitu Israel I. i. 1 The upstart poplars..spire above the venerable trees.
d. In fig. use.
1672Temple Ess., Govt. Wks. 1720 I. 105 A Common⁓wealth, the more it takes in of the general Humour and Bent of the People, and the more it spires up to a Head by the Authority of some one Person. 1857Emerson Poems, Sphinx xvi. Wks. (Bohn) I. 398 Uprose the merry Sphinx, And crouched no more in stone;..She spired into a yellow flame; She flowered in blossoms red.
4. trans.
a. To build up in the form of a spire.
b. To direct or point upwards.
c. To pierce with a sharp and lofty peak.
1750Wren Parentalia 307 The Ground-work being settled, they had nothing else to do but to spire all up as they could. 1839Bailey Festus 53 Nay, I love Death. But Immortality, with finger spired, Points to a distant, giant world. 1874Lanier In Absence iii. Poems (1892) 75 An Alp sublime..Spiring the world's prismatic atmosphere.
▪ IX. † spire, v.2 Obs.
Also 5–6 spyre.
[ad. OF. spirer, espirer (= Sp. and Pg. espirar, It. spirare), or L. spīrāre to breathe.]
1. intr. or absol. To breathe; to blow gently; to come forth or out as breath. Also fig.
1382Wyclif Ecclus. xliii. 17 In his wil shal spiren, or brethen, out the south. a1395Hylton Scala Perf. ii. xli. (MS. Bodl. 592), Þe hooli goost spireþ where he wole & þou heerist his voice, but þou woost not fro whennes he comeþ or whidir he goiþ. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (1531) 59 b, Let the swete odour of deuocyon and prayer spyre out and ascende vp to thy lorde and spouse. 1535Joye Apol. Tindale (Arb.) 24 Here may ye smel out of what stynkyng breste and poysoned virulent throte thys peivisshe Pystle spyrethe and breathed forthe.
2. trans. To breathe (air, etc.). Const. into.
1382Wyclif Gen. ii. 7 The Lord God thanne fourmede man of the slyme of the erthe, and spiride in to the face of hym an entre of breth of lijf.
3. To breathe forth or out, to create or produce by the agency of the breath.
Used in the pa. pple. of the Holy Spirit in relation to the other Persons of the Trinity.
1435Misyn Fire of Love 16 Þe sone is cald, be-caus of þe fadyr he is gottyn; þe holy goste, be-caus of both þe holy fader & holy sone he is spiryd. 1613Day Dyall iii. (1614) 49 He is tearmed a Spirit,..because he is spired or breathed from the Father and the Sonne. 1645Ussher Body Div. (1647) 86.
b. To pour out by or as by breathing; to emit or give forth (odour).
1649Lovelace Poems 77 The rosin-lightning [should] flash, and Monster spire Squibs, and words hotter then his fire. 1657W. Morice Coena quasi κοινὴ Def. xviii. 321 The leaves..gently toucht do spire forth an excellent odour.
▪ X. spire, v.3|spaɪə(r)|
[f. spire n.3]
intr. To curl, twist, or wind spirally; to make a spiral curve; esp. to mount or soar with spiral movement.
Sometimes difficult to distinguish from spire v.1
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 54 The hornes [of the Bonasus] are recurued,..so that they do not spire directly downeward but rather forward. 1718Entertainer No. 41. 280 It is a Pitchy-smoak, and wheresoever it curls and spires, there we may..find the..Fire of Virtue. 1824L. M. Hawkins Annaline II. 232 The whirlwind came spiring upwards. a1850Beddoes Poems (1851) 214 The amazèd circle of scared eagles Spire to the clouds. 1895Yeats Poems 225 The worms that spired about his bones.
▪ XI. spire
obs. form of speer v.1 |