hotspur
Americannoun
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
- hotspurred adjective
Etymology
Origin of hotspur
1425–75; late Middle English; after Sir Henry Percy, to whom it was applied as a nickname
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
More significant men of his time can be discussed without passion because they are inextricably woven into a tapestry of the past, but this hotspur refuses to die.
From Reuters • Jan. 11, 2013
“You try telling that hotspur Phaeton why he was reined in, or rosy-fingered Aurora why I had to shove her in the face,” Hermes archly tells the reader.
From New York Times • Apr. 4, 2010
But in surrendering his job as chief executive of the 127-year-old Boston & Maine, the hotspur of U.S. railroading at least set a refreshing precedent.
From Time Magazine Archive
Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi, the hotspur of the Arab world, barged into the internal problems of another nation for the second time in two weeks.
From Time Magazine Archive
The young hotspur was cut to the quick, and, forgetting Corsican ways, made the witless blunder of challenging Peraldi to a duel, an institution scorned by the Corsican devotees of the vendetta.
From The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte Vol. I. (of IV.) by Sloane, William Milligan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
