spurge

• (US) IPA^(key): /spɝd͡ʒ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /spɜːd͡ʒ/

  • Audio (General American):

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  • Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒ

Inherited from Middle English spurge, from Old French espurge, from espurgier (“to purge”), from Latin expurgo (“I purge”); the bitter milky sap of these plants was formerly used as a purgative.

spurge (usually uncountable, plural spurges)

1. Any plant of the genus Euphorbia, a diverse genus of over 2,000 species.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section X:

     But cockle, spurge, according to their law / Might propagate their kind, with none to awe, / You'd think; a burr had been a treasure trove.

2. Any plant of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae.

   Synonym: euphorbia

3. A plant resembling those in genus Euphorbia in some aspect of its appearance.

• malvid, fabid, rosid, eudicot, angiosperm, tracheophyte, plant

• spurge on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Euphorbia on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Euphorbia on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• “*spurge*”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Uncertain, but likely closely related to etymology 1, thus a doublet of purge.

spurge (third-person singular simple present spurges, present participle spurging, simple past and past participle spurged)

1. (intransitive) To emit foam; to froth; said of the emission of yeast from beer during fermentation.
   • 1661, W. Cartwright, Siedge:

     The body's somthing noysome: 'tis a stale one; / Good troth it spurgeth very monstrously.

• Grupes, Super G, purges, super G

• sporge, spourge, spowrge

Borrowed from Old French espurge, from espurgier, from Latin expurgo. Compare purgen.

• IPA^(key): /ˈspurd͡ʒ(ə)/

spurge (uncountable)

1. spurge

• English: spurge

• “spurǧe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.