spear foot (sperfut)

The off or right hind foot of a horse. spear-gra (spērʼgrás), n. 1. A name of various species of Agrostis, bent-gra , of Agropy rum repens, quitch-gra , of Alopecurus agrestis, foxtail, and perhaps of some other gra es. The spear-gra of Shakspere, according to Ellacombe, is the quitch-gra ; according to Prior, it is the common reed, Phragmites communis. [Old or prov. Eng.] To tickle our noses with spear-gra to make them bleed. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., ii. 4. 340. 2. The June-gra , or Kentucky blue-gra , Poa pratensis (see cut under Poa ); also other species of the genus. P. annua is the low or annual spear gra . It is so called from the lance-shaped spikelets. (See meadow - gra .) The name is said to be applied also to the porcupine-gra , on account of its awns. [U. S.] 3. In New Zealand, a name of one or two plants of the umbelliferous genus Aciphylla: so called from their long gra -like leaflets, which have hard and sharp points. spear-hand (sper'hand), n. The right hand or the right side, as distinguished from the shield hand. spear-head (spērʼhed), n. The head of a spear. It is always pointed, and of iron or steel among people who know the use of iron, but anciently of bronze, and among some savage peoples of stone, bone, or the like. The form varies from that of a long double-edged blade which with its socket is two feet or more in length, as was common in throwing-spears of the Franks and Saxons, to the head of the fourteenth-century lance, which was a mere pointing of the wooden shaft with steel and only a few inches in length. The spear-head is often barbed, sometimes serrated or wavy, etc. Compare coronal, 2, also pilum, lancel, javelin. A plant of one of spear-hook (sper'hük), n. Same as spring - hook. spear-javelin (spēr'jav lin), n. Same as fra mea, 1. spear-leafed lily. See lily, 1. spear-lily (spēr'lil i), n. three species of the Australian genus Doryan thes of the Amaryllideæ. It has partly the habit of Agave, having a cluster of over one hundred sword shaped leaves at the base, an erect stem, in D. excels a from 10 to 18 feet high, with a dense terminal head of red flowers. The leaves of that species contain a fiber suitable for rope and paper-making. spearman (sper'man), n.; pl. spearmen (-men). [ Wily as an eel that stirs the mud Thick overhead, so baffling spearman's thrust. Browning, Ring and [Book, II. 162. 2. A book-name for any leaf-beetle of the genus Dory phora. The Colorado potato-beetle, D. decemlineata, is the ten-lined spearman. See cut under beetle.