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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



... tramp is to threaten him with the police, and I am quite sure if every householder would make a rule never to relieve tramps with money, and only those who are crippled, with food, the number would soon be decreased. If people have any old clothes or spare coppers to give away, I am sure they will soon find in their own town or village many cases more worthy of their charity than the highway tramp. I do not recommend anybody to find a tramp even temporary employment, unless they can stand over him ...
— Gipsy Life - being an account of our Gipsies and their children • George Smith
... calm herself down by degrees; and they crossed the ridge-way. When they began to descend the long, straight hill, they saw plodding along in front of them an elderly man of spare stature and thoughtful gait. In his hand he carried a basket; and there was a touch of slovenliness in his attire, together with that indefinable something in his whole appearance which suggested one who was his own housekeeper, purveyor, confidant, ...
— Jude the Obscure • Thomas Hardy
... rustics of the neighbourhood, had no easy life in those days, when, as we have seen, the town was ruined, and when, as the extraordinary thickness of the walls of its remaining tower demonstrates, the castle was built by new lords who did not spare the forced labour of the vanquished. The strength of the position of the castle is best estimated after viewing the surrounding country from the top of the tower. Through the more modern embrasures, or over the low wall round the summit, you look up and down the valley of the Thames, and gaze deep ...
— Oxford • Andrew Lang
... enemy under an intolerable weight of obligation, that induced me to rush to his rescue; moreover, as I stood on the gangway witnessing his struggles for life, I felt that I was about to lose all the revenge I had so long laid up in store; in short, I could not spare him, and only saved him, as a cat does a mouse, to ...
— Frank Mildmay • Captain Frederick Marryat
... added notes of editorial commentary, was the joint work of Hoover and his wife—it was Mrs. Hoover, indeed, who began it—and occupied most of their spare time, especially their evenings—and sometimes nights!—and Sundays, through nearly five years. They had been for some time collecting and delving in old books on China and the Far East and ancient treatises ...
— Herbert Hoover - The Man and His Work • Vernon Kellogg


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