spire
To sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growthTo sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate.
» The spire of the cathedral collapsed.
Шпиль собора обрушился. — marafon
AlanF_US · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
4 sensesTo sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate.
To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally.
(transitive)To furnish with a spire.
(intransitive, obsolete)To breathe.
Examples
8 sentencesThe spire of the cathedral collapsed.
ruШпиль собора обрушился. — marafon
A church spire could be seen in the distance.
ruЦерковный шпиль виден издалека. — redscorp
deEin Kirchturm war in der Ferne sichtbar. — Seren
The library spire is the highest point on campus.
What's the name of that church there with the leaning spire?
deWie heißt die Kirche mit dem schiefen Turmhelm dort? — raggione
To the west a dark church spire rose up against a marigold sky.
Origin
From Middle English spire, spyre, spier, spir, from Old English spīr, from Proto-GermanicFrom Middle English spire, spyre, spier, spir, from Old English spīr, from Proto-Germanic *spīrō, *spīrǭ (“peak; point; tip; stalk”). Cognate with Dutch spier, German Low German Spier, German Spier, Spiere, Danish spir, Norwegian spir and spire, Swedish spira, Icelandic spíra.
From Old French spirer, and its source, Latin spīrō (“to breathe”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
spires, spiring, spired, spiredLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle