springe

[ sprinj ]

noun
  1. a snare for catching small game.

verb (used with object),springed, spring·ing.
  1. to catch in a springe.

verb (used without object),springed, spring·ing.
  1. to set a springe or springes.

Origin of springe

1
1200–50; Middle English, variant of sprenge a snare, literally, something that is made to spring, derivative of sprengen to make spring, Old English sprengan, causative of springan to spring

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use springe in a sentence

  • The future is quite enough hampered with the past, without setting anticipatory traps and springes for unwary feet.

  • The writer of the letter from Bombay, signed Ormont, was a born subject for the antithetical craftsmen's tricky springes.

  • Now I saw that he was getting angry with me for drawing distinctions, when he wanted to catch me in his springes of words.

    Euthydemus | Plato
  • You are doubtless aware of his character; a man who sets nets and springes in long cover, and fishes wherever he takes a fancy.

    My Lady Ludlow | Elizabeth Gaskell
  • Snipe and woodcock, which come to the marshy meadows in severe weather, are taken in "gins" and "springes."

    Poachers and Poaching | John Watson

British Dictionary definitions for springe

springe

/ (sprɪndʒ) /


noun
  1. a snare set to catch small wild animals or birds and consisting of a loop attached to a bent twig or branch under tension

verb
  1. (intr) to set such a snare

  2. (tr) to catch (small wild animals or birds) with such a snare

Origin of springe

1
C13: related to Old English springan to spring

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012