[syn: plain, bare, spare, unembellished, unornamented]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Spare \Spare\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spared; p. pr. & vb. n.
Sparing.] [AS. sparian, fr. spaer spare, sparing, saving;
akin to D. & G. sparen, OHG. spar?n, Icel. & Sw. spara, Dan.
spare See Spare, a.]
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." --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
[Thou] thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not
spare. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
He that hath knowledge, spareth his words. --Prov.
xvii. 27.
[1913 Webster]
2. To keep to one's self; to forbear to impart or give.
[1913 Webster]
Be pleased your plitics to spare. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
Spare my sight the pain
Of seeing what a world of tears it costs you.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
3. To preserve from danger or punishment; to forbear to
punish, injure, or harm; to show mercy to.
[1913 Webster]
Spare us, good Lord. --Book of
Common Prayer.
[1913 Webster]
Dim sadness did not spare
That time celestial visages. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
Man alone can whom he conquers spare. --Waller.
[1913 Webster]
4. To save or gain, as by frugality; to reserve, as from some
occupation, use, or duty.
[1913 Webster]
All the time he could spare from the necessary cares
of his weighty charge, he ?estowed on . . . serving
of God. --Knolles.
[1913 Webster]
5. To deprive one's self of, as by being frugal; to do
without; to dispense with; to give up; to part with.
[1913 Webster]
Where angry Jove did never spare
One breath of kind and temperate air. --Roscommon.
[1913 Webster]
I could have better spared a better man. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
To spare one's self.
(a) To act with reserve. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Her thought that a lady should her spare.
--Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
(b) To save one's self labor, punishment, or blame.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Spare \Spare\, v. i.
1. To be frugal; not to be profuse; to live frugally; to be
parsimonious.
[1913 Webster]
I, who at some times spend, at others spare,
Divided between carelessness and care. --Pope.
[1913 Webster]
2. To refrain from inflicting harm; to use mercy or
forbearance.
[1913 Webster]
He will not spare in the day of vengeance. --Prov.
vi. 34.
[1913 Webster]
3. To desist; to stop; to refrain. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Spare \Spare\, a. [Compar. Sparer; superl. Sparest; -- not
used in all the senses of the word.] [AS. spaer sparing. Cf.
Spare, v. t. ]
1. Scanty; not abundant or plentiful; as, a spare diet.
[1913 Webster]
2. Sparing; frugal; parsimonious; chary.
[1913 Webster]
He was spare, but discreet of speech. --Carew.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
If that no spare clothes he had to give. --Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
4. Held in reserve, to be used in an emergency; as, a spare
anchor; a spare bed or room.
[1913 Webster]
5. Lean; wanting flesh; meager; thin; gaunt.
[1913 Webster]
O, give me the spare men, and spare me the great
ones. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
6. Slow. [Obs. or prov. Eng.] --Grose.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Spare \Spare\, n.
1. The act of sparing; moderation; restraint. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Killing for sacrifice, without any spare. --Holland.
[1913 Webster]
2. Parsimony; frugal use. [Obs.] --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
Poured out their plenty without spite or spare.
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
3. An opening in a petticoat or gown; a placket. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
4. That which has not been used or expended.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
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.
[PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
spare
adj 1: thin and fit; "the spare figure of a marathon runner"; "a
body kept trim by exercise" [syn: spare, trim]
2: more than is needed, desired, or required; "trying to lose
excess weight"; "found some extra change lying on the
dresser"; "yet another book on heraldry might be thought
redundant"; "skills made redundant by technological advance";
"sleeping in the spare room"; "supernumerary ornamentation";
"it was supererogatory of her to gloat"; "delete superfluous
(or unnecessary) words"; "extra ribs as well as other
supernumerary internal parts"; "surplus cheese distributed to
the needy" [syn: excess, extra, redundant, spare,
supererogatory, superfluous, supernumerary, surplus]
3: not taken up by scheduled activities; "a free hour between
classes"; "spare time on my hands" [syn: spare, free]
4: kept in reserve especially for emergency use; "a reserve
supply of food"; "a spare tire"; "spare parts"
5: lacking in amplitude or quantity; "a bare livelihood"; "a
scanty harvest"; "a spare diet" [syn: bare(a), scanty,
spare]
6: lacking embellishment or ornamentation; "a plain hair style";
"unembellished white walls"; "functional architecture
featuring stark unornamented concrete" [syn: plain, bare,
spare, unembellished, unornamented]
n 1: an extra component of a machine or other apparatus [syn:
spare part, spare]
2: an extra car wheel and tire for a four-wheel vehicle [syn:
fifth wheel, spare]
3: a score in tenpins; knocking down all ten after rolling two
balls
v 1: refrain from harming [syn: spare, save]
2: save or relieve from an experience or action; "I'll spare you
from having to apologize formally"
3: give up what is not strictly needed; "he asked if they could
spare one of their horses to speed his journey" [syn:
spare, give up, part with, dispense with]
4: use frugally or carefully
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
481 Moby Thesaurus words for "spare":
Lenten, Scotch, Spartan, abandon, abjure, absolve, abstain,
abstain from, abstemious, accessory, additional, afford, agent,
allow, alternate, alternative, amnesty, analogy, ancillary,
angular, another, as a bonus, ascetic, austere, auxiliary, avoid,
award, backup, balance, bald, bare, basic, bear, bestow, bonus,
bony, cadaverous, candid, canny, careful, casual, cede, change,
changeling, chary, chaste, cheeseparing, collateral, common,
commonplace, comparison, conserve, conserved, conserving,
contributory, copy, copyright, counterfeit, de trop, deliver,
deputy, direct, discharge, disgorge, dispensable, dispense,
dispense from, dispense with, dispose of, dividend, do without,
donate, double, drop, dry, dull, dummy, dump, dwarfed, dwarfish,
economic, economizing, elementary, endure, equal, equivalent,
ersatz, eschew, essential, except, excess, exchange, exculpate,
excuse, exempt, exiguous, exonerate, expendable, expletive, extra,
fake, farther, fill-in, flat, flat-chested, fleshless,
for lagniappe, forbear, forehanded, forgive, forgo, forsake,
forswear, frank, free, fresh, frugal, fundamental, further,
gangling, gangly, gaunt, gawky, get along without, get rid of,
ghost, ghostwriter, give, give absolution, give away,
give dispensation from, give quarter, give up, grant amnesty to,
grant forgiveness, grant immunity, grant remission, gratuitous,
gratuity, guard, have done with, have mercy upon, have pity, held,
held back, held in reserve, held out, hold, hold aloof from,
hold back, hold off, homely, homespun, homogeneous, idle,
imitation, impoverished, in abeyance, in addition, in excess,
in hand, in reserve, incidental, indivisible, irreducible, jejune,
keep, keep alive, keep back, keep from, keep in hand, keep intact,
keep inviolate, keep safe, keep up, kept, kiss good-bye,
labor-saving, lagniappe, lank, lanky, lay aside, lay away, lay by,
lay in, lay up, lean, lean-fleshed, lean-looking, left, leftover,
leisure, leisured, let alone, let go, let go by, let have, let off,
let up on, liberate, limited, locum tenens, maintain,
make a sacrifice, makeshift, margin, matter-of-fact, meager, mean,
melt, mere, metaphor, metonymy, mint, miserly, mock, modest,
money-saving, monolithic, more, more than enough, narrow, natural,
neat, needless, net, never touch, new, next best thing, niggardly,
nonessential, not destroy, not endanger, not expend, not touch,
not use, not use up, not waste, occasional, odd, of a piece, off,
open, original, other, out-of-the-way, outstanding, over,
over and above, overage, overmeasure, overplus, overrun, overset,
overstock, oversupply, paltry, pardon, parsimonious, part with,
part-time, pass up, patent, penny-wise, personnel, phony, pinch,
pinch hitter, plain, plain-speaking, plain-spoken, pleonastic,
plus, poor, pourboire, preserve, preserved, primal, primary,
pristine, prolix, prosaic, prosing, prosy, protect, provident,
provisional, proxy, prudent, prudential, puny, pure,
pure and simple, put aside, put by, quitclaim, rawboned, recant,
redeem, redundant, refrain, refrain from, register, relax, release,
relent, relief, relieve, relinquish, remainder, remaining,
remanent, remise, remit, render up, renounce, replacement,
representative, reprieve, rescue, reserve, reserved, reserves,
resign, retained, retired, retract, ringer, rustic, sacrifice,
salt away, save, save the necessity, saved, saving, scant, scanty,
scraggy, scrawny, scrimp, scrimping, scrimpy, second string,
secondary, semiretired, severe, short, shrive, shun, side, sign,
simon-pure, simple, simple-speaking, single, skeletal, skimp,
skimping, skimpy, skinny, slender, slight, slim, small, sober,
something extra, spare the price, spares, sparing, sparse, spidery,
spindling, spindly, stand, stand aloof from, stand-in, stark,
starvation, stingy, stint, stinted, stopgap, stored,
straightforward, straitened, stunted, sub, subsistence,
substituent, substitute, substitution, succedaneum, supererogatory,
superfluous, supernumerary, superseder, supplanter, supplemental,
supplementary, support, surplus, surplusage, surrender, surrogate,
surviving, suspended, sustain, swear off, symbol, synecdoche,
take pity on, tautologic, tautologous, temporary, tentative, thaw,
thin, thin-bellied, thin-fleshed, third string, thrifty, throw up,
tide, time-saving, tip, to spare, token, twiggy, ulterior,
unadorned, unaffected, unapplied, unbeaten, uncalled-for,
uncluttered, unconsumed, undergo, undersized, understudy,
underweight, undifferenced, undifferentiated, unemployed,
unessential, unexercised, unexpended, unhandled, uniform,
unimaginative, unnecessary, unneeded, unnourishing, unnutritious,
unoccupied, unpoetical, unspent, untapped, untouched, untrodden,
unused, unutilized, unvarnished, unwasteful, uphold, utility,
utility player, vacate, verbose, vicar, vicarious, vice-president,
vice-regent, waive, waived, watered, watery, well afford, wiry,
withheld, withhold, yield