spoor

[spoor, spawr, spohr]

noun

1. a track or trail, especially that of a wild animal pursued as game.

verb (used with or without object)

1. to track by or follow a spoor.

spoor

/ spʊə, spɔː /

noun

1. the trail of an animal or person, esp as discernible to the human eye

verb

1. to track (an animal) by following its trail

Other Word Forms

• spoorer noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of spoor¹

1815–25; < Afrikaans spoor < Dutch; cognate with Old English, Old Norse spor, German Spur; speer

Word History and Origins

Origin of spoor¹

C19: from Afrikaans, from Middle Dutch spor; related to Old English spor track, Old High German spor; see _spur

Example Sentences

Sweet gums, out; They’re also invasive, triggering allergies, and dropping nasty, spiky balls like alien spoor.

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Volcanoes some distance away from here left behind some sturdy volcanic rock, but also this spoor of volcanic ash that drifted underwater before the PV Peninsula became itself.

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He said he could smell the mould from outside the house and "you could see the black spoors in the air" inside.

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Mr. Frank’s photographs — of lone individuals, teenage couples, groups at funerals and odd spoors of cultural life — were cinematic, immediate, off-kilter and grainy, like early television transmissions of the period.

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The former crime scene is still a windswept field studded with cacti and criss-crossed by antelope spoor.

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