spur on

1. Goad or urge ahead, as in The thought of winning a Pulitzer Prize spurred the reporter on. This expression transfers using spurs to make a horse go faster to incentives of other kinds. [Late 1500s]

Example Sentences

Musk is scrambling to keep up in the AI race after helping launch OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015, the company behind the wildly popular chatbot ChatGPT, which helped spur on the current AI craze.

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Kershaw then walked off the mound and was put on the injured list with a bone spur on his left big toe.

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Days after the Dodgers’ World Series parade, Kershaw had two surgical operations: One on his left knee, where he had suffered a torn meniscus; and another on his left foot to address arthritis, a bone spur on his big toe and, most seriously, a ruptured plantar plate.

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“When consumers do spend, that tends to spur on the economy.”

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In a start against the Arizona Diamondbacks, a bone spur on Kershaw’s right big toe flared up so bad he was forced to leave the game in the second inning.

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