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Spare   /spɛr/   Listen
adjective
Spare  adj.  (compar. sparer; superl. sparest)  
1.
Scanty; not abundant or plentiful; as, a spare diet.
2.
Sparing; frugal; parsimonious; chary. "He was spare, but discreet of speech."
3.
Being over and above what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous; as, I have no spare time. "If that no spare clothes he had to give."
4.
Held in reserve, to be used in an emergency; as, a spare anchor; a spare bed or room.
5.
Lean; wanting flesh; meager; thin; gaunt. "O, give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones."
6.
Slow. (Obs. or prov. Eng.)


verb
Spare  v. t.  (past & past part. spared; pres. part. sparing)  
1.
To use frugally or stintingly, as that which is scarce or valuable; to retain or keep unused; to save. "No cost would he spare." "(Thou) thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare." "He that hath knowledge, spareth his words."
2.
To keep to one's self; to forbear to impart or give. "Be pleased your plitics to spare." "Spare my sight the pain Of seeing what a world of tears it costs you."
3.
To preserve from danger or punishment; to forbear to punish, injure, or harm; to show mercy to. "Spare us, good Lord." "Dim sadness did not spare That time celestial visages." "Man alone can whom he conquers spare."
4.
To save or gain, as by frugality; to reserve, as from some occupation, use, or duty.
5.
To deprive one's self of, as by being frugal; to do without; to dispense with; to give up; to part with. "Where angry Jove did never spare One breath of kind and temperate air." "I could have better spared a better man."
To spare one's self.
(a)
To act with reserve. (Obs.) "Her thought that a lady should her spare."
(b)
To save one's self labor, punishment, or blame.


Spare  v. i.  
1.
To be frugal; not to be profuse; to live frugally; to be parsimonious. "I, who at some times spend, at others spare, Divided between carelessness and care."
2.
To refrain from inflicting harm; to use mercy or forbearance. "He will not spare in the day of vengeance."
3.
To desist; to stop; to refrain. (Obs.)


noun
Spare  n.  
1.
The act of sparing; moderation; restraint. (Obs.) "Killing for sacrifice, without any spare."
2.
Parsimony; frugal use. (Obs.) "Poured out their plenty without spite or spare."
3.
An opening in a petticoat or gown; a placket. (Obs.)
4.
That which has not been used or expended.
5.
(Tenpins) The right of bowling again at a full set of pins, after having knocked all the pins down in less than three bowls. If all the pins are knocked down in one bowl it is a double spare; in two bowls, a single spare. For the meaning in modern bowling, see sense 6.
6.
(Bowling) The act of knocking down all ten pins in two bowls, which entitles the bowler to add the number of pins knocked down in the next bowl to the score for the frame in which the spare occurred.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Spare" Quotes from Famous Books



... is good for man to be so. [7:27]Are you bound to a wife, seek not a release; are you released from a wife, seek not a wife. [7:28]But if you marry, you do not sin and if the virgin marries she does not sin. But such will have affliction in the flesh; but I spare you. [7:29]But this I say, brothers, the time is short, so that in future those who have wives should be as those not having them, [7:30]and those who weep as those not weeping, and those who rejoice as those not rejoicing, and those who buy as not possessing, [7:31]and those who use the ...
— The New Testament • Various
... at a truly astonishing pace, considering his paunch and all-round ungainliness, getting over the ground faster than many a thin man could have done. As he ran his lips worked, for though he had no breath to spare for speech, his brain was forming words ...
— Winds of the World • Talbot Mundy
... language. This prince was now up the country, engaged in a war with his neighbours, called the Diable Moors;* and the queen-dowager, who remained at Portenderrick, gave Mr. Cumming to understand, that she could not at present spare any troops to join the English in their expedition against Senegal; but she assured him, that, should the French be exterminated, she and their subjects would ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett
... will never be forgotten by those who watched his last moments. Labored was the breathing and every breath was a gasp and a groan. His children stood by the couch and saw the pain-racked form, and his wife held his hand and prayed to the God of all people to spare him to her for a longer time. Prayers were of no avail and tears did not soothe the pain. He was in agony, and accompanied with that agony was a desire to say something. He relapsed into slumber at times and would at intervals awake. His eyes would roll about ...
— Volume 12 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann
... believe that Melbourne would not be more so than anybody, if it were not that he is bound by every sentiment of duty, gratitude, and attachment to the Queen to retain the Government as long as he can with honour and safety, and to stretch a point even, to spare her the pain and mortification of changes that would be so painful to her. The Tories, who see the accumulating difficulties of the Government, and who are aware of the immense importance of letting it dissolve of itself, or be broken up by the defection and opposition of its own supporters, are ...
— The Greville Memoirs (Second Part) - A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852 - (Volume 1 of 3) • Charles C. F. Greville


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