spurn
UK /spɜːn/ · US /spɝn/ verb, noun
Forms spurns spurning spurned
- verb (ambitransitive) To reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
- verb (transitive) To reject something by pushing it away with the foot.
- verb (transitive) To waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity)
- verb (intransitive, obsolete) To kick or toss up the heels.
- noun An act of spurning; a scornful rejection.
- noun (archaic) A kick; a blow with the foot.
- noun (obsolete) Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
- noun (mining) A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.
Synonyms
Etymology
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 *sperH-.
Cognate with Scots spurn (“to strike, push, kick”), German spornen (“to spur on”), Icelandic sporna, spyrna (“to kick”), Latin spernō (“despise, distain, scorn”). Related to spur and spread.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick.
- verb To reject with disdain; to scorn to receive or accept; to treat with contempt.
- verb To kick or toss up the heels.
- verb To manifest disdain in rejecting anything; to make contemptuous opposition or resistance.
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. sq. root171. See Spur.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “spurn”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details