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From Middle English springen, from Old English springan (“to spring, leap, bounce, sprout forth, emerge, spread out”), from Proto-West Germanic *springan, from Proto-Germanic *springaną (“to burst forth”), from Proto-Indo-European *spre(n)ǵʰ- (“to move, race, spring”), from *sperǵʰ- (“to hurry”).

Other possible cognates include Lithuanian spreñgti (“to push (in)”), Old Church Slavonic прѧсти (pręsti, “to spin, to stretch”), Latin spargere (“to sprinkle, to scatter”), Ancient Greek σπέρχω (spérkhō, “to hasten”), Sanskrit स्पृहयति (spṛháyati, “to be eager”). Some newer senses derived from the noun.

spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past sprang or sprung, past participle sprung)

  1. (intransitive) To move or burst forth.
    • c. 1540, Livy, translated by John Bellenden, History of Rome, Vol. I, i, xxii, p. 125:
    1. To appear.
    2. To grow, to sprout.
      • 1974, James Albert Michener, Centennial, page 338:
        There was moisture in the ground, and from it sprang a million flowers, gold and blue and brown and red.
      • 2006, N. Roberts, Morrigann's Cross, section VI:
        Foxglove sprang tall and purple among the trees.
      1. (UK dialectal) To mature.
    3. (figurative) To arise, to come into existence.
      Synonyms: arise, form, take shape
    4. (sometimes figurative) To enliven.
    5. (figurative, usually with cardinal adverbs) To move with great speed and energy.
      Synonyms: bound, jump, leap
      Deer spring with their hind legs, using their front hooves to steady themselves.
      • c. 1250, Life of St Margaret, Trin. Col. MS B.14.39 (323), f. 22v:
        ...into helle spring...
      • 1474, William Caxton, transl., Game and Playe of the Chesse, iii, vii, 141:
      • 1722, Ambrose Philips, The Briton:
        ...the Mountain Stag, that springs
        From Height to Height, and bounds along the Plains,
        Nor has a Master to restrain his Course...
      • 1827, Clement Clarke Moore, (A Visit from St. Nicholas):
        ...out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
        I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
      • 2011 April 11, The Atlantic:
        Reporters sprang to the conclusion that the speech would make detailed new commitments...
    6. (usually with from) To be born, descend, or originate from
      He sprang from peasant stock.
      • 2008, George McCandless, The ABCs of RBCs, Harvard University Press, page 7:
        From this basis, a first-order difference equation for the evolution of capital per worker is found, and the time path of the economy springs from this equation.
    7. (obsolete) To rise in social position or military rank, to be promoted.
  2. (transitive) To cause to spring (all senses).
    1. (of mechanisms) To cause to work or open by sudden application of pressure.
      He sprang the trap.
      • 1625, Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, Vol. II, x, ix:
        They sprung another Mine... wherein was placed about sixtie Barrels of Powder.
      • 1747, The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer:
        On the 23d, the Besiegers sprung a Mine under the Salient Angle, upon the Right of the Haif Moon, which had the desired Success, the Enemy's Gallery on that Side, and the Mason-Work of the Counterscarp, being thereby demolished.
  3. (transitive) To leap over.
    • 1876, Matilda Leathes, Our village worthies; or, Stories of village life, page 112:
      I sprang the fence, and was soon in the village street.
  4. (obsolete, of horses) To breed with, to impregnate.
    • 1585, Nicolas De Nicolay, translated by Thomas Washington, The Navigations, Peregrinations, and Voyages, Made into Turkie..., Bk. IV, p. 154:
      ...[they] sought the fairest stoned horses to spring their mares...
  5. (transitive, obsolete) To wet, to moisten.
  6. (intransitive, now usually with "apart" or "open") To burst into pieces, to explode, to shatter.
    • 1698, François Froger, A Relation of a Voyage Made... on the Coasts of Africa, page 30:
      On the 22nd the mines sprang, and took very good effect.
  7. (obsolete, military) To go off.
    • 2012 April 21, Sydney Morning Herald, page 5:
      The whole contraption appears liable to spring apart at any moment.
  8. (ambitransitive, nautical, usually perfective) To crack.
    • 1582 August 2, Richard Madox, diary:
      The Edward sprang hir foremast.
  9. To come upon and flush out.
    • 1921, Field and Stream, page 832:
      For generations of men the springer spaniel has been looked upon as the dog for springing pheasants in covert and finding and retrieving dead birds or winged runners when ordered to do so. The properly broken dog will not chase, but drop to wing and shot.
    • 1940, Allen A. Day, “Dachsunds for Woodchucks”, in Dwight Williams Huntington, editor, The Game Breeder and Sportsman, page 94:
      […] by the beginning of this century a still smaller breed, with a weight of 4 of 5 pounds and a chest measurement of around 12 inches, had come into being for springing rabbits. Such, then, is a rough, quick ancestral picture of our modern Dachshund, and […]
    • 2003 August 1, Dennis Walrod, Grouse Hunter's Guide: Solid Facts, Insights, and Observations on How to Hunt Ruffled Grouse, Stackpole Books, →ISBN:
      I winter, ruffed grouse sometimes roost at night on the ground under the insulating snow. Even during the midday hours, I have often flushed grouse out from under the snow-bowed branches of "buck-brush," the type of environment where a hunter would more likely expect to spring a rabbit or two.
  10. (Australia, slang) To catch in an illegal act or compromising position.
  1. (obsolete) To begin.
  2. (obsolete, slang) To put bad money into circulation.
  3. To tell, to share.
    Sorry to spring it on you like this but I've been offered another job.
  1. (transitive, slang, US) To free from imprisonment, especially by facilitating an illegal escape.
    Synonyms: free, let out, release, spring loose, jailbreak
    His lieutenants hired a team of miners to help spring him.
  2. (intransitive, slang, rare) To be free of imprisonment, especially by illegal escape.
  3. To secure a person's release from custody; to free or bail out of jail.
  1. (transitive, architecture, of arches) To build, to form the initial curve of.
    They sprung an arch over the lintel.
  2. (intransitive, architecture, of arches, with "from") To extend, to curve.
    The arches spring from the front posts.
  3. (transitive, nautical) To turn a vessel using a spring attached to its anchor cable.
  4. (transitive) To pay or spend a certain sum, to yield.
  5. (obsolete, intransitive, slang) To raise an offered price.
  6. (transitive, US, dialectal) Alternative form of sprain.
  7. (transitive, US, dialectal) Alternative form of strain.
  8. (intransitive, obsolete) To act as a spring: to strongly rebound.
  9. (transitive, rare) To equip with springs, especially (of vehicles) to equip with a suspension.
  10. (figurative, rare, obsolete) to inspire, to motivate.
  11. (ambitransitive) To deform owing to excessive pressure, to become warped; to intentionally deform in order to position and then straighten in place.
  1. (intransitive, UK, dialectal, chiefly of cows) To swell with milk or pregnancy.
  1. (transitive, of rattles, archaic) To sound, to play.
  1. (of animals) To find or get enough food during springtime.

From Middle English spryng (“a wellspring, tide, branch, sunrise, kind of dance or blow, ulcer, snare, flock”); partly from Old English spring (“wellspring, ulcer”), from Proto-West Germanic *spring, from Proto-Germanic *springaz (“a wellspring, fount”); and partly from Old English spryng (“a jump”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprungi, from Proto-Germanic *sprungiz (“a jump”). Further senses derived from the verb and from clippings of day-spring, springtime, spring tide, etc. Its sense as the season, first attested in a work predating 1325, gradually replaced Middle English lenten, lente, from Old English lencten (“spring, Lent”) as that word became more specifically liturgical. Compare fall.

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Spring (season) in Germany

A coil spring (mechanical device)

spring (countable and uncountable, plural springs)

  1. (countable) An act of springing: a leap, a jump.
  2. (countable, uncountable) The season of the year in temperate regions in which temperatures and daylight hours rise, and plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life.
    Synonym: springtime
    Coordinate terms: summer, autumn or fall, winter
    Spring is the time of the year most species reproduce.
    You can visit me in the spring, when the weather is bearable.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXVIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 59:
      No joy the blowing season gives,
      ⁠The herald melodies of spring,
      ⁠But in the songs I love to sing
      A doubtful gleam of solace lives.
    • 1983, Robert Smith, “The Lovecats”, performed by The Cure:
      Into the sea, you and me / All these years and no one heard / I'll show you in spring, it's a treacherous thing
    • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist‎[4], volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 19 February 2013, page 172:
      Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.
    1. (astronomy) The period from the moment of vernal equinox (around March 21 in the Northern Hemisphere) to the moment of the summer solstice (around June 21); the equivalent periods reckoned in other cultures and calendars.
      Chinese New Year always occurs in January or February but is called the "Spring Festival" throughout East Asia because it is reckoned as the beginning of their spring.
    2. (meteorology) The three months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere.
      I spent my spring holidays in Morocco.
      The spring issue will be out next week.
  3. (uncountable, figurative) The time of something's growth; the early stages of some process.
    1. (figurative, politics) a period of political liberalization and democratization
  4. (countable, fashion) Someone with ivory or peach skin tone and eyes and hair that are not extremely dark, seen as best suited to certain colors of clothing.
  5. (countable) Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly
    1. (geology) A spray or body of water springing from the ground.
      Synonyms: fount, source
    2. (oceanography, obsolete) The rising of the sea at high tide.
    3. (oceanography) Ellipsis of spring tide, the especially high tide shortly after full and new moons.
      Antonym: neap tide
    4. An elastic mechanical part or device in any shape (e.g., flat, curved, coiled), made of flexible material (usually spring steel) that exerts force and attempts to spring back when bent, compressed, or stretched.
      We jumped so hard the bed springs broke.
    5. (nautical) A line from a vessel's end or side to its anchor cable used to diminish or control its movement.
      • 1836, Frederick Marryat, Mr. Midshipman Easy, volume III, page 72:
        He had warped round with the springs on his cable, and had recommenced his fire upon the Aurora.
    6. (nautical) A line laid out from a vessel's end to the opposite end of an adjacent vessel or mooring to diminish or control its movement.
      You should put a couple of springs onto the jetty to stop the boat moving so much.
      • 1769, William Falconer, An Universal Dictionary of the Marine, s.v:
        Spring is likewise a rope reaching diagonally from the stern of a ship to the head of another which lies along-side or a-breast of her.
      • 2007 January 26, Business Times::
        ‘_Springs_’ are the ropes used on a ship that is alongside a berth to prevent fore and aft movements.
    7. (figurative) A race, a lineage.
    8. (figurative) A youth.
    9. A shoot, a young tree.
    10. A grove of trees; a forest.
  6. (countable, slang) An erection of the penis. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  7. (countable, nautical, obsolete) A crack which has sprung up in a mast, spar, or (rare) a plank or seam.
    • 1846, Arthur Young, Nautical Dictionary, page 292:
      A spar is said to be sprung, when it is cracked or split,... and the crack is called a spring.
  8. (uncountable) Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back, particularly
    1. Elasticity: the property of a body springing back to its original form after compression, stretching, etc.
      Synonyms: bounce, bounciness, elasticity, resilience, springiness
      the spring of a bow
    2. Elastic energy, power, or force.
  9. (countable) The source from which an action or supply of something springs.
    Synonyms: impetus, impulse
    • 1693, The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism..., Richard Bentley, Sermon 1:
      Such a man can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth him, he can patiently suffer all things with cheerfull submission and resignation to the Divine Will. He has a secret Spring of spiritual Joy, and the continual Feast of a good Conscience within, that forbid him to be miserable.
    • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals, London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, §9:
      […] discover, at least in some degree, the secret springs and principles, by which the human mind is actuated in its operations?
    • 1991 September, Stephen Fry, “[Prelude to chapter 1]”, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section, page 1:
      ‘Have you ever contemplated, Adrian, the phenomenon of springs?’
      ‘Coils, you mean?’
      ‘Not coils, Adrian, no. Coils not. Think springs of water. Think wells and spas and sources. Well-springs in the widest and loveliest sense. Jerusalem, for instance, is a spring of religiosity. One small town in the desert, but the source of the world’s three most powerful faiths. […] Religion seems to bubble from its sands.’
  10. (countable) Something which causes others or another to spring forth or spring into action, particularly
  11. A cause, a motive, etc.
  12. (obsolete, music) A lively piece of music.
    • (Can we date this quote?), stanza 18, in The Bonny Bows o London (as collected by Buchan in 'Ancient ballads and songs of the north of Scotland'):
      The firstand spring the fiddle did play
      Hey wi the gay and the grinding
      Said, "Ye'll drown my sister, as she's dune me."
      At the bony bony bows of London

Note that season names are not capitalized in modern English except where any noun would be capitalized, e.g. at the beginning of a sentence or as part of a name (Old Man Winter, the Winter War, Summer Glau). This is in contrast to the days of the week and months of the year, which are always capitalized (Thursday or September).

season between winter and summer in temperate climates

water springing from the ground

device made of flexible material

nautical: line from an end or side to the anchor cable

nautical: crack or fissure in a mast or yard

spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past and past participle springed)

  1. (intransitive) To spend the springtime somewhere.
    • 1835 May, “Northern Germany. A Sketch.”, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume XI, number LXV, page 507:
      True it is that, owing to the migratory propensities of our countrymen, every third man has wintered at Naples, springed at Vienna, summered in Switzerland, and autumned on the banks of the Lago Maggiore;
    • 1912, William C[yrus] Sprague, Tad, the Story of a Boy who Had No Chance, page 2:
      If Tad’s father and Tad had wintered, springed, summered, and autumned together for an hundred years instead of fifteen they could […]
    • 1937, Mortimer Jones, “Lines of No Importance”, in The Alphi Phi Quarterly, page 29:
      They wintered in a warm place
      And summered in a cold,
      But where they springed and autumned
      I never have been told.
    • 1950, Chambers’s Journal, page 269:
      She springed in London, summered in Stockholm, autumned at Vichy, and wintered at Monte Carlo.
    • 2006, Tim Pratt, “The Third-Quarter King”, in Jonathan Strahan, Jeremy G Byrne, editors, Eidolon I, →ISBN, page 2:
      In recent years his friend the fourth-quarter king summered, autumned, and springed in nearby Southern California, which was how they stayed so easily in touch.
    • 2010, Larry Stettner, Bill Morrison, Cooking for the Common Good: The Birth of a Natural Foods Soup Kitchen, Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 84:
      Larry and Bill had planned to hold a white-linen “fancy” fund-raiser dinner in late June or early July, which would bring out the moneyed crowd who “summered” on the Island. If you summer or winter somewhere you are affluent, Larry knew. (Funny, though, he had never heard of anyone who “autumned” in Vermont or who was “springing” in Colorado.)
Seasons in English · seasons (layout · text) · category
spring summer autumn, fall winter

From Dutch springen.

spring (present **spring, present participle springende, past participle gespring)

  1. to leap, jump

Verbal noun to springe.

spring n (singular definite springet, plural indefinite **spring)

  1. (athletics, gymnastics) spring, jump, vault, leap

spring

  1. imperative of springe

spring

  1. inflection of springen:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
    3. imperative

spring

  1. singular imperative of springen
  2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of springen

spring

  1. inflection of springa:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

spring

  1. alternative form of spryng

spring

  1. alternative form of spryngen

From Proto-Germanic *springaną.

spring

  1. (Föhr-Amrum, Sylt) to jump, leap

spring

  1. imperative of springe

spring

  1. present of springa

From Proto-West Germanic *spring, from Proto-Germanic *springaz

spring m

  1. a spring (source of water)
  2. an ulcer, sore, pustule

Strong _a_-stem:

spring (plural springs)

  1. spring, springtime
  2. growth of vegetation in springtime

tae spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springin, simple past sprang, past participle sprung)

  1. to spring
  2. to leap over, cross at a bound
  3. to put forth, send up or out
  4. to burst, split, break apart, break into
  5. to dance a reel

spring n

  1. a running (back and forth)
    • 1918, Goss-skolan i Plumfield, the Swedish translation of Louisa M. Alcott, Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys (1871)
      Eftermiddagen tillbragtes med att ordna sakerna, och när springet och släpet och hamrandet var förbi, inbjödos damerna att beskåda anstalten.
      The afternoon was spent in arranging things, and when the running and lugging and hammering was over, the ladies were invited to behold the institution.
      Barnen hade spring i benen
      The children had lots of energy ("running in the legs")

spring

  1. imperative of springa