spurn Meaning, Definition & Usage

Spurn transitive verb

Etymology

OE. spurnen to kick against, to stumble over, AS. spurnan to kick, offend; akin to spura spur, OS. & OHG. spurnan to kick, Icel. spyrna, L. spernere to despise, Skr. sphur to jerk, to push. See Spur.

Wordforms

imperfect & past participle Spurned ; present participle & verbal noun Spurning

Definitions

1. To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick.

   [The bird] with his foot will spurn adown his cup. Chaucer.

   I spurn thee like a cur out of my way. Shak.

2. To reject with disdain; to scorn to receive or accept; to treat with contempt.

   What safe and nicely I might well delay By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn. Shak.

   Domestics will pay a more cheerful service when they find themselves not spurned because fortune has laid them at their master's feet. Locke.

Spurn intransitive verb

Definitions

1. To kick or toss up the heels.

   The miller spurned at a stone. Chaucer.

   The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns. Gay.

2. To manifest disdain in rejecting anything; to make contemptuous opposition or resistance.

   Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image. Shak.

Spurn noun

Definitions

1. A kick; a blow with the foot. R.

   What defence can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn? Milton.

2. Disdainful rejection; contemptuous tratment.

   The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes. Shak.

3. (Mining) A body of coal left to sustain an overhanding mass.