spring

For the verb: "to spring"

Simple Past:	sprang
Past Participle:	sprung

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
spring/sprɪŋ/

▶verb (past sprang or chiefly N. Amer. sprung; past part. sprung)

• 1 move suddenly or rapidly upwards or forwards.

  ■ cause (a game bird) to rise from cover.

• 2 move suddenly by or as if by the action of a spring.

• 3 operate or cause to operate by means of a spring mechanism.

• 4 (spring from) originate or appear from.

  ■ (spring up) suddenly develop or appear.

  ■ (spring something on) present something suddenly or unexpectedly to.

• 5 informal bring about the escape or release of (a prisoner).

• 6 (usu. as adj. sprung) provide (a vehicle or item of furniture) with springs.

• 7 (of wood) become warped or split.

• 8 (spring for) N. Amer. informal pay for.

▶noun

• 1 the season after winter and before summer, in which vegetation begins to appear.

  ■ Astronomy the period from the vernal equinox to the summer solstice.

• 2 an elastic device, typically a helical metal coil, that can be pressed or pulled but returns to its former shape when released.

  ■ elastic quality.

• 3 a sudden jump upwards or forwards.

• 4 a place where water wells up from an underground source.

• 5 an upward curvature of a ship's deck planking from the horizontal.

  ■ a split in a wooden plank or spar under strain.

• 6 Nautical a hawser laid out from a ship's bow or stern and secured to a fixed point in order to prevent movement or assist manoeuvring.

– phrases
spring a leak (of a boat or container) develop a leak.

– derivatives
springless adjective,
springlet noun (literary),
springlike adjective.

– origin OE spring (n.), springan (v.), of Gmc origin.