SPIRE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Spire

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/spaɪr/ Listen

noun

Spire n.

1.

A slender stalk or blade in vegetation; as, a spire grass or of wheat. "An oak cometh up a little spire."

2.

A tapering body that shoots up or out to a point in a conical or pyramidal form. Specifically (Arch.), the roof of a tower when of a pyramidal form and high in proportion to its width; also, the pyramidal or aspiring termination of a tower which can not be said to have a roof, such as that of Strasburg cathedral; the tapering part of a steeple, or the steeple itself. "With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned." "A spire of land that stand apart, Cleft from the main." "Tall spire from which the sound of cheerful bells Just undulates upon the listening ear."

3.

(Mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the chargen in blasting.

4.

The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit. "The spire and top of praises."

Spire n.

1.

A spiral; a curl; a whorl; a twist.

2.

(Geom.) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole. See Spiral, n.

Spire bearer. (Paleon.) Same as Spirifer.

verb

Spire v. i. To breathe. (Obs.)

Spire v. i. (past & past part. spired; pres. part. spiring) To shoot forth, or up in, or as if in, a spire. "It is not so apt to spire up as the other sorts, being more inclined to branch into arms."

See images of 'Spire'

Etymology of 'Spire'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Spire" Quotes from Famous Books

... a frozen dream. There will be time enough to trace out the analogy while waiting the summons to breakfast. Seen through the clear portion of the glass, where the silvery mountain peaks of the frost scenery do not ascend, the most conspicuous object is the steeple, the white spire of which directs you to the wintry luster of the firmament. You may almost distinguish the figures on the clock that has just tolled the hour. Such a frosty sky, and the snow-covered roofs, and the long vista of the frozen ...

— Initial Studies in American Letters • Henry A. Beers

... a couple of days, the school was twisted round and removed to the far corner of the lot. Then the foundations were dug for the new church. It was decided that it should be a brick building, with a spire, to cost about 1500 dollars. Mr. Jacobs, my assistant, busied himself in the matter, and together we managed to raise the requisite funds; and early in the spring building operations ...

— Missionary Work Among The Ojebway Indians • Edward Francis Wilson

... miles from Scott's Bluff stands old Chimney Rock. It is a curious freak of nature, and a famous landmark on the trail. It covers perhaps twelve acres, and rises coneshaped for two hundred feet to the base of the spire-like rock, the "chimney," that rests upon it and rises a full hundred ...

— Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail • Ezra Meeker

... ships coming home with laughter, ships leaving home with sad sea-gull cries of farewell. And the shaggy tossing water shall be bounded on either bank with high granite walls, and on one bank shall be a fretted spire soaring with a jangle of bells, from amid a tangle of masts, and underneath the bells and the masts shall go streets rising up from the strand, streets full of faces, and sweet with the smell of tar and ...

— Prose Fancies (Second Series) • Richard Le Gallienne

... and a few gaslamps. On the right was a Gothic building, which would have been sufficiently handsome if built in stone, but with barbarous taste had been executed in wood. At the end of the garden some more steps led to a broad, four-cornered courtyard, on the right of which the iron spire of the National Memorial was dimly visible, while to the left was a large building of red and yellow brick with a four-square tower at either end, a pavilion projecting from the center, and a number of large windows. Over ...

— The Malady of the Century • Max Nordau

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