spur 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 ba ...

is a metal instrument fastened to the heel of a horse rider. Spur or Spurs may also refer to:

Medicine

Bone spurs An exostosis, also known as bone spur, is the formation of new bone on the surface of a bone. Exostoses can cause chronic pain ranging from mild to debilitatingly severe, depending on the shape, size, and location of the lesion. It is most commonl ...

, a skeletal disorder forming small bony outgrowth along joint margins **

Heel spur A calcaneal spur (also known as a heel spur) is a bony outgrowth from the calcaneal tuberosity (heel bone). Calcaneal spurs are typically detected by x-ray examination. It is a form of exostosis. When a foot is exposed to constant stress, calcium ...

, a thin spike of calcification in the human foot

Organizations

San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association SPUR is a nonprofit public policy organization focused on regional planning, housing, transportation, sustainability and resilience, economic justice, good government, and food and agriculture in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its full name is the Sa ...

, a non-profit research, education, and advocacy organization *

Gruppe SPUR Gruppe SPUR was an artistic collaboration formed by the German painters Heimrad Prem, Helmut Sturm, and Hans-Peter Zimmer, and the sculptor Lothar Fischer in 1957. They published a journal of the same name ''Spur''. ''Spur'' was subject to pr ...

, a German artistic collaboration, and their journal of the same name *

Spur Steak Ranches Spur Corporation (doing business as Spur Steak Ranches) () is a steakhouse franchise restaurant chain originating from South Africa with a focus on family dining. The head office of Spur Corporation is situated in Century City, Cape Town. Althoug ...

, a chain of steakhouses in South Africa * Spur gas, North American gas stations operated by

Murphy Oil Murphy Oil Corporation is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company is ranked 625th on the Fortune 500 and 1860th on the Forbes Global 2000. As of December 31, 2020, the company had of estimate ...

Routes

Spur line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

, a short railway (railroad) branching from a main line * Spur route, a short road branching from longer, more important route * Spur trail, a shorter

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. ...

which branches from a longer route

Science

Spur (botany) The botanical term “spur” is given to outgrowths of tissue on different plant organs. The most common usage of the term in botany refers to nectar spurs in flowers. * nectar spur * spur (stem) * spur (leaf) See also *Fascicle *Sepal *Pe ...

, an elongated appendage of certain sepals * Spur (geology), a ridge, often one that is subordinate to a larger ridge **

Interlocking spur An interlocking spur, also known as an overlapping spur, is one of any number of projecting ridges that extend alternately from the opposite sides of the wall of a young, V-shaped valley down which a river with a winding course flows. Each of t ...

, one of any number of ridges extending alternately from the opposite sides of the wall of a young, V-shaped valley *

Spur (stem) Spurs are short, slow growing stems with greatly shortened internodes that can bear leaves, flowers and fruit. Spurs are perennial growths and commonly arise from the leaf axils on shoots. They are common in fruit trees such as Apple, Pear, Plum ...

, a short flower- and fruit-bearing stem on some fruit trees *

Spur (zoology) A spur is an outgrowth of bone covered in a sheath of horn found in various anatomical locations in some animals. Unlike claws or nails, which grow from the tip of the toes, spurs form from other parts of the foot, usually in connection with joi ...

, an outgrowth of bone covered in a sheath of horn * Spur (chemistry), a region of high concentration of reaction product

Sports

* Witbank Spurs, an association football club from South Africa *

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

, a football team based in London, England *

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its home ...

, a National Basketball Association team based in San Antonio, Texas, US **

Spurs Sports & Entertainment Spurs Sports & Entertainment L.L.C. (SS&E) is an American sports & entertainment organization, based in San Antonio, Texas. The company owns and operates several sporting franchises including the National Basketball Association (NBA) San Antonio ...

, the company that owns the San Antonio Spurs and other sports-related assets * Chancellor's Spurs, a traveling trophy awarded to the winner of the college football game between Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at Austin

Other uses

Spur (architecture) In architecture, a spur (French , German ) is the ornament carved on the angles of the base of early columns. Ornament A spur consists of a projecting claw, which, emerging from the lower torus of the base, rests on the projecting angle of the sq ...

, the ornament carved on the angles of the bases of early columns * Spur (horse), an American thoroughbred racehorse *

Spur (lunar crater) Spur is a feature on Earth's Moon, a crater in the Hadley–Apennine region. Astronauts David Scott and James Irwin visited it in 1971, on the Apollo 15 mission, during EVA 2. Spur was designated Geology Station 7. Spur is located on the ...

* "Spurs" (short story), a short story by Tod Robbins that served as the basis of the film ''Freaks'' *

Spur (topography) A spur is a lateral ridge or tongue of land descending from a hill, mountain or main crest of a ridge. It can also be defined as another hill or mountain range which projects in a lateral direction from a main hill or mountain range. Examples of ...

, a mountain ridge projecting laterally from a main mountain or mountain range *

Spur (typography) Typeface anatomy describes the graphic elements that make up letters in a typeface. Strokes The ''strokes'' are the components of a letterform. Strokes may be ''straight'', as in , or ''curved'', as in . If straight, they may be ''horizontal, ...

, a small continuation of part of a printed letter, especially an uppercase G *

Spur (vine) In viticulture, the canopy of a grapevine includes the parts of the vine visible aboveground - the trunk, cordon, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit. The canopy plays a key role in light energy capture via photosynthesis, water use as regulated ...

, one-year-old wood of a grapevine that is pruned back to leave just one or two buds to be used for next year's crop of grapes *

Spur, Texas Spur is a city in Dickens County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,318 at the 2010 census, up from 1,088 at the 2000 census. A city council resolution passed July 2014 proclaimed Spur the "nation's first tiny house-friendly town." On ...

, United States *

Spur Award Spur Awards are literary prizes awarded annually by the Western Writers of America (WWA). The purpose of the Spur Awards is to honor writers for distinguished writing about the American West. The Spur awards began in 1953, the same year the WWA wa ...

, an annual literary prize awarded by the Western Writers of America * Spur Gasoline Station, a historic building in Cynthiana, kentucky *

Spur gear Spur gears or straight-cut gears are the simplest type of gear. They consist of a cylinder or disk with teeth projecting radially. Viewing the gear at 90 degrees from the shaft length (side on) the tooth faces are straight and aligned parallel to ...

, a type of gear * SPURS National Honor Society, a collegiate sophomore honor-service society in the United States *

Spurious tone In electronics (radio in particular), a spurious tone (also known as an interfering tone, a continuous tone or a spur) denotes a tone in an electronic circuit which interferes with a signal and is often masked underneath that signal. Spurious tones ...

or spur, a tone in an electronic circuit which interferes with a signal * The Spur, a collection of Arts and Crafts bungalows in Clifton, Christchurch, New Zealand * The Spurs, a Canadian country music group 1999–2000 *

Truncated spur A truncated spur is a spur, which is a ridge that descends towards a valley floor or coastline from a higher elevation, that ends in an inverted-V face and was produced by the erosional truncation of the spur by the action of either streams, wa ...