Definition of: spur

(spûr) noun
1. A pricking or goading instrument worn on a horseman's heel, and bearing a sharp point or a series of points on a rotating wheel.
2. Anything that incites or urges; instigation; incentive.
3. A part or attachment projecting like or suggestive of a spur, as a crag or mountain peak, a steel gaff fastened to a gamecock's leg, the ergot of rye, etc.
4. A stiff, sharp spine, as on the legs of some insects and the wings of some birds; especially, the spine on the tarsus of the domestic cock. See illustration under FOWL.
5. Archit. A buttress or other offset from a wall; also, a claw or the like projecting upon the plinth at the four angles of the base of a column.
6. In carpentry, a brace reinforcing a rafter or post; a strut.
7. Bot. A tubular expansion of a foliaceous part, usually some part of the flower, as in the columbine and larkspur.
8. A branch of a lode, railroad, etc.
—on the spur of the moment Hastily; prompted by an impulse.
—v. spurred, spur·ring v.t.
1. To prick or urge with or as with spurs.
2. To furnish with spurs.
3. To injure or gash with the spur, as a gamecock.
—v.i.
4. To spur one's horse.
5. To hasten; hurry. [OE spura]
—spur′rer noun Synonyms (verb): goad, impel, incite, instigate, provoke, rouse, stimulate, sting, stir, urge. Antonyms: check, deter, discourage, dissuade, hold, moderate, rein, restrain.