spurn

Meanings

1. To reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
2. To reject something by pushing it away with the foot.
3. To waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity)
4. To kick or toss up the heels.

1. An act of spurning; a scornful rejection.
2. A kick; a blow with the foot.
3. Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
4. A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.

Etymology

From Middle English spurnen, spornen, from Old English spurnan (“to strike against, kick, spurn, reject; stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *spurnaną (“to tread, kick, knock out”), from Proto-Indo-European *sperH-. Cognate with Scots spurn (“to strike, push, kick”), German spornen (“to spur on”), Icelandic sporna, spyrna (“to kick”), Latin spernō (“despise, distain, scorn”). Related to spur and spread.