verb. (colloquial).—(1) To bring to notice suddenly; (2) to pay out, to give alms; (3) to provide; and (4) to extort. TO SPRING TO = to be able to accomplish, pay, give, &c., &c.
1614. JONSON, Bartholomew Fair, v. 3. I may, perhaps, SPRING a wife for you anon.
1679. DRYDEN, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, x. [CHALMERS, English Poets, xx. 511, 2, 1].
| Surpris’d with fright, | |
| She starts, and leaves her bed, and SPRINGS a light. |
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 53. It’s a feast at a poor country labourer’s place when he SPRINGS sixpenn’orth of fresh herrings.
1878. J. F. SULLIVAN, The British Working Man, &c., 79. Wot ’s he SPRUNG, Bill?
1885. Daily Telegraph, 21 Nov. Such a man is not likely to SPRING UPON his associates and allies a scheme of English surrender to Irish demands.
1901. Troddles & Us, 106. It’s seven pound fifteen, and we can SPRING TO that between us.
