Definition of spring

• v. i. - To leap; to bound; to jump.
• v. i. - To issue with speed and violence; to move with activity; to dart; to shoot.
• v. i. - To start or rise suddenly, as from a covert.
• v. i. - To fly back; as, a bow, when bent, springs back by its elastic power.
• v. i. - To bend from a straight direction or plane surface; to become warped; as, a piece of timber, or a plank, sometimes springs in seasoning.
• v. i. - 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.
• v. i. - To issue or proceed, as from a parent or ancestor; to result, as from a cause, motive, reason, or principle.
• v. i. - To grow; to prosper.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To produce or disclose suddenly or unexpectedly.
• v. t. - To cause to explode; as, to spring a mine.
• v. t. - To crack or split; to bend or strain so as to weaken; as, to spring a mast or a yard.
• v. t. - To cause to close suddenly, as the parts of a trap operated by a spring; as, to spring a trap.
• v. t. - To bend by force, as something stiff or strong; to force or put by bending, as a beam into its sockets, and allowing it to straighten when in place; -- often with in, out, etc.; as, to spring in a slat or a bar.
• v. t. - To pass over by leaping; as, to spring a fence.
• v. i. - A leap; a bound; a jump.
• v. i. - A flying back; the resilience of a body recovering its former state by elasticity; as, the spring of a bow.
• v. i. - Elastic power or force.
• v. i. - An elastic body of any kind, as steel, India rubber, tough wood, or compressed air, used for various mechanical purposes, as receiving and imparting power, diminishing concussion, regulating motion, measuring weight or other force.
• v. i. - Any source of supply; especially, the source from which a stream proceeds; as issue of water from the earth; a natural fountain.
• v. i. - Any active power; that by which action, or motion, is produced or propagated; cause; origin; motive.
• v. i. - That which springs, or is originated, from a source;
• v. i. - A race; lineage.
• v. i. - A youth; a springal.
• v. i. - A shoot; a plant; a young tree; also, a grove of trees; woodland.
• v. i. - That which causes one to spring; specifically, a lively tune.
• v. i. - The season of the year when plants begin to vegetate and grow; the vernal season, usually comprehending the months of March, April, and May, in the middle latitudes north of the equator.
• v. i. - The time of growth and progress; early portion; first stage.
• v. i. - A crack or fissure in a mast or yard, running obliquely or transversely.
• v. i. - A line led from a vessel's quarter to her cable so that by tightening or slacking it she can be made to lie in any desired position; a line led diagonally from the bow or stern of a vessel to some point upon the wharf to which she is moored.