What does "spurn" mean?
Spurn: To reject with disdain; to scorn to receive or accept; to treat with contempt. What safe and nicely I might well delay By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn. Shak. Domestics will pay a more cheerful service when they find themselves not spurned because fortune has laid them at their master's feet. Locke.
Additional senses
- 2.To kick or toss up the heels. The miller spurned at a stone. Chaucer. The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns. Gay.
- 3.To manifest disdain in rejecting anything; to make contemptuous opposition or resistance. Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image. Shak.
- 4.A kick; a blow with the foot. [R.] What defence can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn Milton.
- 5.Disdainful rejection; contemptuous tratment. The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes. Shak.
- 6.(Mining) A body of coal left to sustain an overhanding mass.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00