Chapter Sprawl to Spring of S by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

1. To leap; to bound; to jump.

The mountain stag that springs
From height to height, and bounds along the plains.

Philips.

2. To issue with speed and violence; to move with activity; to dart; to shoot.

And sudden light
Sprung through the vaulted roof.

Dryden.

3. To start or rise suddenly, as from a covert.

Watchful as fowlers when their game will spring.

Otway.

4. To fly back; as, a bow, when bent, springs back by its elastic power.

5. To bend from a straight direction or plane surface; to become warped; as, a piece of timber, or a plank, sometimes springs in seasoning.

6. To shoot up, out, or forth; to come to the light; to begin to appear; to emerge; as a plant from its seed, as streams from their source, and the like; -often followed by up, forth, or out.

Till well nigh the day began to spring.

Chaucer.

To satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth.

Job xxxviii. 27.

Do not blast my springing hopes.

Rowe.

O, spring to light; auspicious Babe, be born.

Pope.

7. To issue or proceed, as from a parent or ancestor; to result, as from a cause, motive, reason, or principle.

[They found] new hope to spring
Out of despair, joy, but with fear yet linked.

Milton.

8. To grow; to prosper.

What makes all this, but Jupiter the king,
At whose command we perish, and we spring?

Dryden.

To spring at, to leap toward; to attempt to reach by a leap. — To spring forth, to leap out; to rush out. — To spring in, to rush in; to enter with a leap or in haste. — To spring onor upon, to leap on; to rush on with haste or violence; to assault.

Spring
(Spring) v. t.

1. To cause to spring up; to start or rouse, as game; to cause to rise from the earth, or from a covert; as, to spring a pheasant.

2. To produce or disclose suddenly or unexpectedly.

She starts, and leaves her bed, amd springs a light.

Dryden.

The friends to the cause sprang a new project.

Swift.

3. To cause to explode; as, to spring a mine.

4. To crack or split; to bend or strain so as to weaken; as, to spring a mast or a yard.

5. To cause to close suddenly, as the parts of a trap operated by a spring; as, to spring a trap.