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Spire

//spaɪə// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The stalk or stem of a plant. archaic
  2. 2
    One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil.

    "A dragon's fiery form bely'd the god: Sublime on radiant spires he rode."

  3. 3
    a tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building (usually a church or temple) and that tapers to a point at the top wordnet
  4. 4
    A young shoot of a plant; a spear.

    "Clara had pulled a button from a hollyhock spire, and was breaking it to get the seeds."

  5. 5
    A spiral.
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
  2. 7
    The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.
  3. 8
    A sharp or tapering point.

    "A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky."

  4. 9
    A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof.

    "The spire of the church rose high above the town."

  5. 10
    The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit.

    "the spire and top of praises"

  6. 11
    A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.
Verb
  1. 1
    to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate.

    "In gentle Ladies breste and bounteous race / Of woman kind it fayrest Flowre doth spyre, / And beareth fruit of honour and all chast desyre."

  2. 2
    To breathe. intransitive, obsolete
  3. 3
    To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally.
  4. 4
    To furnish with a spire. transitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English spire, spyre, spier, spir, from Old English spīr, from Proto-Germanic *spīrō, *spīrǭ (“peak; point; tip; stalk”). Cognate with Dutch spier, German Low German Spier, German Spier, Spiere, Danish spir, Norwegian spir and spire, Swedish spira, Icelandic spíra.

Etymology 2

From Middle English spire, spyre, spier, spir, from Old English spīr, from Proto-Germanic *spīrō, *spīrǭ (“peak; point; tip; stalk”). Cognate with Dutch spier, German Low German Spier, German Spier, Spiere, Danish spir, Norwegian spir and spire, Swedish spira, Icelandic spíra.

Etymology 3

From Old French spirer, and its source, Latin spīrō (“to breathe”).

Etymology 4

From Middle French spire.

See also for "spire"

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