springe

American  

[sprinj] / sprɪndʒ /

noun

1. a snare for catching small game.

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verb (used with object)

springed, springing

1. to catch in a springe.

verb (used without object)

springed, springing

1. to set a springe or springes.

springe British  

/ 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

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verb

1. (intr) to set such a snare

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

Etymology

Origin of springe

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

springe springed springing

The slighter the strain on the springe, the more delicately can its mechanism be set.

From The Art of Travel Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries by Sir Francis Galton

I am the scape-goat!—I!—Be it so!—Should she be caught in her own springe, who can say I am to blame?

From Anna St. Ives by Thomas Holcroft

There was, for instance, a very effective mode of setting a wire with a springe or bow.

From The Amateur Poacher by Richard Jefferies

Gentlemen, when the police have strong suspicions against a person whose reputation is above reproach and whose conduct affords no opportunity for impeachment, they set a springe for him.

From The Sword of Damocles A Story of New York Life by Anna Katharine Green

"Snipes!" says Bridget; "deft art thou, fosterling, to take them without either springe or stonebow, and they all flittering like butterflies on a March day."

From The Sundering Flood by May Morris

It’s springed a leak, an’ the water’s got down my neck.”

From Children of the Mist by Eden Phillpotts

Although somewhat highly springed, the vehicle is so well arranged and padded, that the occupants are seldom hurt by striking against the sides with rough jolting, unless quite helpless.

From Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre by George Henry Makins

They had wintered it and springed it, and clung to it through bright days and dark.

From Four Girls and a Compact by Annie Hamilton Donnell

You have springed your dottrel, I find, and what is the consequence?—why, that there will be hue and cry after you presently.

From Redgauntlet by Sir Walter Scott

Witness the beautiful description: "All to once the nor'easter springed out from the land, an' afore us could down-haul the mainsail, the sea wer feather-white an' skatting in over the bows."

From A Poor Man's House by Stephen Sydney Reynolds

But as soon as the cast is set in motion, the overriding impression is that of a manifesto springing into a college vaudeville.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

An incapacity agreement can further provide the rationale for springing into action.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026

For the surviving staff, absorbing the shock and the loss of the attacks meant springing into service.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

The new technology is inspired by resurrection plants, which dry out and appear dead during a drought, before springing back to life when it rains.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

The steel ran south and north presumably, springing from some inconceivable source and shooting toward a miraculous terminus.

From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead

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