speared
simple past tense and past participle of spear
• Pardees, Peredas, preased, red peas, respade
Source: Wiktionary
Spear, n. Etym: [OE. spere, AS. spere; akin to D. & G. speer, OS. & OHS. sper, Icel. spjör, pl., Dan. spær, L. sparus.]
1. A long, pointed weapon, used in war and hunting, by thrusting or throwing; a weapon with a long shaft and a sharp head or blade; a lance.
Note: [See Illust. of Spearhead.] "A sharp ground spear." Chaucer. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Micah iv. 3.
2. Fig.: A spearman. Sir W. Scott.
3. A sharp-pointed instrument with barbs, used for stabbing fish and other animals.
4. A shoot, as of grass; a spire.
5. The feather of a horse. See Feather, n., 4.
6. The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod. Spear foot, the off hind foot of a horse.
– Spear grass. (Bot.) (a) The common reed. See Reed, n., 1. (b) meadow grass. See under Meadow.
– Spear hand, the hand in which a horseman holds a spear; the right hand. Crabb.
– Spear side, the male line of a family. Lowell.
– Spear thistle (Bot.), the common thistle (Cnicus lanceolatus).
Spear, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Speared; p. pr. & vb. n. Spearing.]
Definition: To pierce with a spear; to kill with a spear; as, to spear a fish.
Spear, v. i.
Definition: To shoot into a long stem, as some plants. See Spire. Mortimer.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
1 June 2025
(verb) come back to the originator of an action with an undesired effect; “Your comments may backfire and cause you a lot of trouble”; “the political movie backlashed on the Democrats”
The Boston Tea Party helped popularize coffee in America. The hefty tea tax imposed on the colonies in 1773 resulted in America switching from tea to coffee. In the lead up to the Revolutionary War, it became patriotic to sip java instead of tea. The Civil War made the drink more pervasive. Coffee helped energize tired troops, and drinking it became an expression of freedom.
