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spire

spire is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 7 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.A slender stalk or blade in vegetation; as, a spire grass or of wheat. An oak cometh up a little spire. Chaucer.
  2. 2.A tapering body that shoots up or out to a point in a conical or pyramidal form. Specifically (Arch.), 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." Milton. 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. 3.(Mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the chargen in blasting.
  4. 4.The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit. The spire and top of praises. Shak.
  5. 5.To shoot forth, or up in, or as if in, a spire. Emerson. It is not so apt to spire up as the other sorts, being more inclined to branch into arms. Mortimer.
  6. 6.A spiral; a curl; a whorl; a twist. Dryden.
  7. 7.(Geom.) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole. See Spiral, n. Spire bearer. (Paleon.) Same as Spirifer.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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