Spur vs. Spike — What's the Difference?

A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to back up the natural aids (the leg, seat, hands, and voice).

A long, thick, sharp-pointed piece of wood or metal.

A device with a small spike or a spiked wheel that is worn on a rider's heel and used for urging a horse forward.

A heavy nail.

A thing that prompts or encourages someone; an incentive

A sharp-pointed projection along the top of a fence or wall.

A projection from a mountain or mountain range

A thin, sharp-pointed vertical rod for impaling papers; a spindle.

A small, single-pointed support for ceramic ware in a kiln.

An elongate unbranched inflorescence with sessile flowers.

Urge (a horse) forward by digging one's spurs into its sides

A thorn or spine.

Give an incentive or encouragement to (someone)

A tuft of hair that is stiffened, as with hair spray or soap, into a point.

Prune in (a side shoot of a plant) so as to form a spur close to the stem

(Slang) A hypodermic needle.

A short spike or spiked wheel that attaches to the heel of a rider's boot and is used to urge a horse forward.

One of several sharp metal projections set in the sole or in the sole and heel of an athletic shoe for grip.

An incentive

Spikes A pair of athletic shoes having such projections.

A spinelike process on the leg of some birds.

Spikes A pair of spike heels.

A climbing iron; a crampon.

An unbranched antler of a young deer.

A gaff attached to the leg of a gamecock.

A young mackerel of small size, usually 15 centimeters (6 inches) or less in length.

A short or stunted branch of a tree.

A sharp rise followed by a sharp decline in a graph or in the tracing of a scientific instrument.

A bony outgrowth or protuberance.

A sharp momentary increase in voltage or electric current.

A lateral ridge projecting from a mountain or mountain range.

A sudden steep increase in prices.

An oblique reinforcing prop or stay of timber or masonry.

(Sports) The act of driving a volleyball at a sharp angle into the opponent's court by jumping near the net and hitting the ball down hard from above.

(Botany) A tubular or saclike extension of the corolla or calyx of a flower, as in a columbine or larkspur.

(Football) The act of slamming the ball to the ground after succeeding in an important play, as after scoring a touchdown.

An ergot growing on rye.

(Football) The act of deliberately throwing the ball to the ground as an incomplete pass in order to stop the game clock.

A spur track.

An ear of grain, as of wheat.

To urge (a horse) on by the use of spurs.

(Botany) A usually elongated, unbranched inflorescence with stalkless flowers arranged along an axis.

To incite or stimulate

To secure or provide with a spike.

To ride quickly by spurring a horse.

To shape into spikes.

A rigid implement, often roughly y-shaped, that is fixed to one's heel for the purpose of prodding a horse. Often worn by, and emblematic of, the cowboy or the knight.

To impale, pierce, or injure with a spike.

A jab given with the spurs.

To injure with spiked shoes, especially when sliding in baseball.

(figurative) Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.

To put an end to; terminate

An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.

To add alcoholic liquor to

Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.

To add a poison or other chemical to

Roots, tree roots.

To add flavor or spice to

(geology) A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.

To add excitement or vitality to

A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale to strip off the blubber.

(Sports) To hit (a volleyball) in a spike.

(carpentry) A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.

(Football) To throw (the ball) to the ground in a spike.

(architecture) The short wooden buttress of a post.

To render (a muzzleloading gun) useless by driving a spike into the vent.

(architecture) A projection from the round base of a column, occupying the angle of a square plinth upon which the base rests, or bringing the bottom bed of the base to a nearly square form. It is generally carved in leafage.

To manifest or undergo a sudden increase in (something) followed by a sharp decrease

Ergotized rye or other grain.

To manifest or undergo a sudden increase followed by a sharp decrease

A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.

A sort of very large nail.

(shipbuilding) A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.

A piece of pointed metal etc. set with points upward or outward.

(shipbuilding) A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.

(by extension) Anything resembling such a nail in shape.

(mining) A branch of a vein.

An ear of corn or grain.

(rail transport) A very short branch line of a railway line.

(botany) A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.

(transport) A short branch road of a motorway, freeway or major road.

A running shoe with spikes in the sole to provide grip.

(botany) A short thin side shoot from a branch, especially one that bears fruit or, in conifers, the shoots that bear the leaves.

A sharp peak in a graph.

A tern.

A surge in power or in the price of a commodity, etc.; any sudden and brief change that would be represented by a sharp peak on a graph.

(electronics) A spurious tone, one that interferes with a signal in a circuit and is often masked underneath that signal.

The rod-like protrusion from a woman's high-heeled shoe that elevates the heel.

(transitive) To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.

A long nail for storing papers by skewering them; (by extension) the metaphorical place where rejected newspaper articles are sent.

(transitive) To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object

(volleyball) An attack from, usually, above the height of the net performed with the intent to send the ball straight to the floor of the opponent or off the hands of the opposing block.

(transitive) To put spurs on.

(zoology) An adolescent male deer.

(intransitive) To press forward; to travel in great haste.

The casual ward of a workhouse.

To form a spur senses 17-18 of the noun

Spike lavender.

A sparrow.

Synonym of endpin.

An implement secured to the heel, or above the heel, of a horseman, to urge the horse by its pressure. Modern spurs have a small wheel, or rowel, with short points. Spurs were the badge of knighthood.

(theater) A mark indicating where a prop or other item should be placed on stage.

That which goads to action; an incitement.

A small project that uses the simplest possible program to explore potential solutions.

Something that projects; a snag.

To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails.

One of the large or principal roots of a tree.

To set or furnish with spikes.

Any stiff, sharp spine, as on the wings and legs of certain birds, on the legs of insects, etc.; especially, the spine on a cock's leg.

To embed nails into (a tree) so that any attempt to cut it down will damage equipment or injure people.

A mountain that shoots from any other mountain, or range of mountains, and extends to some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.

To fix on a spike.

A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale, to strip off the blubber.

To discard; to decide not to publish or make public.

A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.

To increase sharply.

The short wooden buttress of a post.

To covertly put alcohol or another intoxicating substance into a drink.

Any projecting appendage of a flower looking like a spur.

To add a small amount of one substance to another.

A wall that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.

(volleyball) To attack from, usually, above the height of the net with the intent to send the ball straight to the floor of the opponent or off the hands of the opposing block.

A piece of timber fixed on the bilge ways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.

(military) To render (a gun) unusable by driving a metal spike into its touch hole.

A branch of a vein.

To slam the football to the ground, usually in celebration of scoring a touchdown, or to stop expiring time on the game clock after snapping the ball as to save time for the losing team to attempt to score the tying or winning points.

The track of an animal, as an otter; a spoor.

(slang) To inject a drug with a syringe.

To prick with spurs; to incite to a more hasty pace; to urge or goad; as, to spur a horse.

A sort of very large nail; also, a piece of pointed iron set with points upward or outward.

To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object; to incite; to stimulate; to instigate; to impel; to drive.

Anything resembling such a nail in shape.

To put spurs on; as, a spurred boot.

An ear of corn or grain.

To spur on one's horse; to travel with great expedition; to hasten; hence, to press forward in any pursuit.

A kind of flower cluster in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.

A verbalization that encourages you to attempt something;

Spike lavender. See Lavender.

Any pointed projection

To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails; as, to spike down planks.

Tubular extension at the base of the corolla in some flowers

To set or furnish with spikes.

A sharp prod fixed to a rider's heel and used to urge a horse onward;

To fix on a spike.

A railway line connected to a trunk line

To stop the vent of (a gun or cannon) by driving a spike nail, or the like into it.

Incite or stimulate;

A transient variation in voltage or current

Give heart or courage to

Sports equipment consisting of a sharp point on the sole of a shoe worn by athletes;

Strike with a spur

Fruiting spike of a cereal plant especially corn

Goad with spurs;

(botany) an indeterminate inflorescence bearing sessile flowers on an unbranched axis

Equip with spurs;

A sharp rise followed by a sharp decline;

A sharp-pointed projection along the top of a fence or wall

A long sharp-pointed implement (wood or metal)

Any holding device consisting of a long sharp-pointed object

A long metal nail

Stand in the way of

Pierce with a sharp stake or point;

Secure with spikes

Bring forth a spike or spikes;

Add alcohol beverages

Manifest a sharp increase;