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Definition of Spire
1. Noun. A tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building (usually a church or temple) and that tapers to a point at the top.
Category relationships: Church, Church Service
Specialized synonyms: Pinnacle
Generic synonyms: Tower
Definition of Spire
1. v. i. To breathe.
2. n. A slender stalk or blade in vegetation; as, a spire grass or of wheat.
3. v. i. To shoot forth, or up in, or as if in, a spire.
4. n. A spiral; a curl; a whorl; a twist.
Definition of Spire
1. Noun. (rare) The stalk or stem of a plant. (defdate from 10th c.) ¹
2. Noun. A young shoot of a plant; a spear. (defdate from 14th c.) ¹
3. Noun. A sharp or tapering point. (defdate from 16th c.) ¹
4. Noun. A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof. (defdate from 16th c.) ¹
5. Noun. The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit. (defdate from 17th c.) ¹
6. Verb. Of a seed, plant etc.: to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate. (defdate from 14th c.) ¹
7. Verb. To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally. (defdate from 14th c.) ¹
8. Verb. (intransitive obsolete) To breathe. (defdate 14th-16th c.) ¹
9. Noun. One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil. (defdate from 16th c.) ¹
10. Noun. A spiral. (defdate from 17th c.) ¹
11. Noun. (geometry) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Spire
1. to rise in a tapering manner [v SPIRED, SPIRING, SPIRES]
Medical Definition of Spire
1.
To breathe.
Origin: L. Spirare to breathe. See Spirit.
1. A slender stalk or blade in vegetation; as, a spire grass or of wheat. "An oak cometh up a little spire." (Chaucer)
2. A tapering body that shoots up or out to a point in a conical or pyramidal form. Specifically, the roof of a tower when of a pyramidal form and high in proportion to its width; also, the pyramidal or aspiring termination of a tower which can not be said to have a roof, such as that of Strasburg cathedral; the tapering part of a steeple, or the steeple itself. "With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned." "A spire of land that stand apart, Cleft from the main." (Tennyson) "Tall spire from which the sound of cheerful bells Just undulates upon the listening ear." (Cowper)
3.
Lexicographical Neighbors of Spire
Literary usage of Spire
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Gothic Architecture in England: An Analysis of the Origin & Development of by Francis Bond (1905)
"It is not till the latter half of the eleventh century that a low spire appears
in masonry. ... A spire is shown in the conventual seal of Kenilworth. ..."
2. The Gentleman's Magazine (1844)
"amples the first idea was rendered less apparent in consequence of the onion of
the spire with the tower being masked by a battlement, an unequi- rocal ..."
3. Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain by George Edmund Street (1914)
"There is a fine fourteenth - century south spire OF SAN FELIU porch, with some
good arcading in its side walls, in which the tracery is all executed with ..."
4. The Cathedral Church of Oxford: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief by Percy Dearmer (1899)
"But the one feature which in part rises above its misfortunes is the spire.
The spire.—Among all the strange domes and steeples which give to the city of ..."
5. Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature by John McClintock (1880)
"i a'l stood out spire and finish- «ff i>i4f"'v^f^w?«i:i!lf *}ii?rith a 8t«cp ...
Fine examples of spire; cf tc exist in Normandy, ..."
6. Our Old Home, and English Note-books by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1912)
"The tower is square and immensely massive, and might have supported a very lofty
spire; so that it is the more strange that what spire it has should be so ..."
7. Technology Review by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Association of Class Secretaries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alumni Association (1900)
"The most attractive part, however, is the Gothic spire that rises on the west
side of the nave from the fortress-like walls of what seem to be the remains ..."
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