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Spire vs Spiring - What's the difference?

spire | spiring |

As a noun spire

is or spire can be one of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil.

As a verb spire

is of a seed, plant etc: to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate or spire can be (obsolete) to breathe.

As an adjective spiring is

shooting up in a spire or spires.

spire

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) . Cognate with Dutch spier, German Spier, (Spiere), Danish spir, Norwegian spir, Swedish spira.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A young shoot of a plant; a spear.
  • * 1913 ,
    • Clara had pulled a button from a hollyhock spire , and was breaking it to get the seeds.
  • A sharp or tapering point.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
    • , title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=1 citation , passage=A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.}}
  • A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof.
    • The spire of the church rose high above the town.
  • The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit.
  • * Shakespeare
    • the spire and top of praises
  • (mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.

    • Verb

    (spir)
  • Of a seed, plant etc.: to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.5:
    • In gentle Ladies breste and bounteous race / Of woman kind it fayrest Flowre doth spyre , / And beareth fruit of honour and all chast desyre.
  • * Mortimer
    • It is not so apt to spire up as the other sorts, being more inclined to branch into arms.
  • To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally.

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) spirer, and its source, (etyl) .

    Verb

    (spir)
  • (obsolete) To breathe.
    • (Shenstone)

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) spire.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil.
  • A spiral.
    • (Dryden)
  • (geometry) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.

    • Anagrams

    * ----

    spiring

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Shooting up in a spire or spires.
    • The spiring grass. — Drayton.
    (Webster 1913)