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Spurn   /spərn/   Listen
verb
Spurn  v. t.  (past & past part. spurned; pres. part. spurning)  
1.
To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick. "(The bird) with his foot will spurn adown his cup." "I spurn thee like a cur out of my way."
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." "Domestics will pay a more cheerful service when they find themselves not spurned because fortune has laid them at their master's feet."


Spurn  v. i.  
1.
To kick or toss up the heels. "The miller spurned at a stone." "The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns."
2.
To manifest disdain in rejecting anything; to make contemptuous opposition or resistance. "Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image."


noun
Spurn  n.  
1.
A kick; a blow with the foot. (R.) "What defense can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn?"
2.
Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment. "The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes."
3.
(Mining) A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Spurn" Quotes from Famous Books



... blood, That will be thawed from the true quality, With that which meeteth fools; I mean, sweet words, Low, crooked courtesies, and base, spaniel fawning; Thy brother by decree is banished; If thou dost bend, and pray and fawn for him, I spurn thee like a cur out of my way. Know, Caesar doth not wrong; nor without cause Will he be satisfied! But I am constant as the northern star, Of whose true fixed and resting quality There is ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce
... like the horse, They treat man with disdain; They spurn the rider and his whip, His ...
— The Tiny Picture Book. • Anonymous
... facing untoward conditions, is without personal responsibility; but Henry experienced, in addition to his self-distrust, a sickening fear of failure in her presence. He was conscious of two dominant thoughts. Whatever happened, he must take care of his wife and spurn the advances of agreeable strangers. Also he and she must be transported by hack to the hotel they had chosen, without parting with the savings of years for the ride. He had heard of the extortions of cabmen. He bargained ...
— Many Kingdoms • Elizabeth Jordan
... regarding it, too, very intently; "ah, no, a face that could be patched together at the nearest florist's would not haunt a man's dreams o'nights, as hers does! I haven't any need for praises sauced with lies! I spurn hyperbole. I scorn exaggeration. I merely state calmly and judicially that she was God's masterpiece,—the most beautiful and adorable and indescribable creature that He ...
— The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck - A Comedy of Limitations • James Branch Cabell
... against conformity will not lead a man to spurn the aid of other men, still less to reject the accumulated mental capital of ages. It does not compel us to dote upon the advantages of savage life. We would not forego the hard-earned gains of civil ...
— Friends in Council (First Series) • Sir Arthur Helps


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