What is "spire"

Spire \Spire\, v. i. [L. spirare to breathe. See Spirit.] To breathe. [Obs.]
--Shenstone.

Spire \Spire\, n. [OE. spire, spir, a blade of grass, a young shoot, AS. sp[=i]r; akin to G. spier a blade of grass, Dan. spire a sprout, sprig, Sw. spira a spar, Icel. sp[=i]ra.]

1. A slender stalk or blade in vegetation; as, a spire grass or of wheat.

   An oak cometh up a little spire.
   --Chaucer.

2. A tapering body that shoots up or out to a point in a conical or pyramidal form. Specifically (Arch.), the roof of a tower when of a pyramidal form and high in proportion to its width; also, the pyramidal or aspiring termination of a tower which can not be said to have a roof, such as that of Strasburg cathedral; the tapering part of a steeple, or the steeple itself. ``With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned.''
   --Milton.

   A spire of land that stand apart, Cleft from the main.
   --Tennyson.

   Tall spire from which the sound of cheerful bells Just undulates upon the listening ear.
   --Cowper.

3. (Mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the chargen in blasting.

4. The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit.

   The spire and top of praises.
   --Shak.

Spire \Spire\, n. [L. spira coil, twist; akin to Gr. ???: cf. F. spire.]

1. A spiral; a curl; a whorl; a twist.
   --Dryden.

2. (Geom.) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole. See Spiral, n.

   Spire bearer. (Paleon.) Same as Spirifer.

Spire \Spire\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Spired; p. pr. & vb. n. Spiring.] To shoot forth, or up in, or as if in, a spire.
--Emerson.

It is not so apt to spire up as the other sorts, being more inclined to branch into arms.
--Mortimer.

Old English spir "a sprout, shoot, spike, blade, tapering stalk of grass," from Proto-Germanic *spiraz (cognates: Old Norse spira "a stalk, slender tree," Dutch spier "shoot, blade of grass," Middle Low German spir "a small point or top"), from PIE *spei- "sharp point" (see spike (n.1)). Meaning "tapering top of a tower or steeple" first recorded 1590s (a sense attested in Middle Low German since late 14c. and also found in the Scandinavian cognates).

early 14c., "send up shoots," from spire (n.). Related: Spired; spiring.

Etymology 1 n. 1 (context now rare English) The stalk or stem of a plant. (from 10th c.) 2 A young shoot of a plant; a spear. (from 14th c.) 3 A sharp or tapering point. (from 16th c.) vb. 1 Of a seed, plant etc.: to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate. (from 14th c.) 2 To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally. (from 14th c.) Etymology 2

vb. (context intransitive obsolete English) To breathe. (14th-16th c.) Etymology 3

n. 1 One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil. (from 16th c.) 2 A spiral. (from 17th c.) 3 (context geometry English) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.

n. a tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building (usually a church or temple) and that tapers to a point at the top [syn: steeple]

A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, often a skyscraper or a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass.

Currently, the largest spire to be part of the architecture of another building is the one mounted on the recently completed Q1 residential tower on the Gold Coast in Australia.

A spire is a part of the coiled shell of molluscs. The spire consists of all of the whorls except for the body whorl. Each spire whorl represents a rotation of 360°. A spire is part of the shell of a snail, a gastropod mollusc, a gastropod shell, and also the whorls of the shell in ammonites, which are fossil shelled cephalopods.

In textbook illustrations of gastropod shells, the tradition (with a few exceptions) is to show the majority of shells with the spire uppermost on the page.

The spire, when it is not damaged or eroded, includes the protoconch (also called the nuclear whorls or the larval shell), and most of the subsequent teleoconch whorls (also called the postnuclear whorls), which gradually increase in size as they are formed. Thus the spire in most gastropods is pointed, the tip being known as the " apex". The word "spire" is used, in an analogy to a church spire or rock spire, a high, thin, pinnacle.

The "spire angle" is the angle, as seen from the apex, at which a spire increases in size. It is an angle formed by imaginary lines tangent to the spire.

Some gastropod shells have very high spires (the shell is much higher than wide), some have low spires (the shell is much wider than high), and there are all possible grades between. In a few gastropod families the shells are not helical in their coiling, but instead are planispiral, flat-coiled. In these shells, the spire does not have a raised point, but instead is sunken.

Gastropod shells that are not spirally coiled (for example shells of limpets) have no columella.

A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building.

Spire may also refer to:

• Spire of Dublin
• Chicago Spire, a cancelled supertall skyscraper in Chicago
• A Spire for Mansfield

• Spire Healthcare, a British healthcare company
• Spire (aerospace), a satellite-based data company

• Spire (mollusc)

• Spire (activity tracker)
• SPIRE (Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver), an instrument on the Herschel Space Observatory
• Systematic Protein Investigative Research Environment, a web-based experiment-specific mass spectrometry analysis site

• Spire FM
• Spire (social networking service)

• The Spire, a 1964 novel by William Golding
• The Spire (comics), a 2015 limited comics series
• Spire Christian Comics

Spire is a 453ft (138m) tall skyscraper in Atlanta, Georgia. It was built from 2004 to 2005 on the site of the former Atlanta Cabana Motel. It has 28 floors and is tied with the Equitable Building as the 21st tallest building in the city, and has 392 units.

Spire is a high-rise building containing 496 condominium homes in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. Standing at 147.2 meters with 41 floors, Spire is the ninth tallest building in Denver and was designed by architecture firm RNL Design.

The building is at 14th Street and Champa Street in downtown Denver. It cost $175,000,000 to build, from 2007 to 2009. It is a LEED ( Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building with of amenity space, including a gym, pools and a spa, a top floor lounge, and of shops on the ground floor. It contains one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments. It is currently owned by P3 Development NA, Inc.

Spire, formerly known as LifeKraze, is a web-based social networking service founded in April 2010. Members share "real-world" personal accomplishments with their friends, and are rewarded by other members. Members can award each other points for each accomplishment. Members can use the points they've collected to buy rewards from brand partners.

Spire was founded by two Covenant College alumni, Ben Wagner and David Nielson, as the brainchild of their senior project in 2010. The site quickly developed into an expanding social media platform, gaining significant traction at South by Southwest in 2011, and continues to grow. On October 29, 2013 the named was changed from LifeKraze to Spire. With these changes was an updated logo, colors, and minor changes to the website and apps.

The site's membership is open to the general public, and is currently associated with dozens of brands. Spire launched an iOS app on the App Store on July 24, 2012, and an Android app on the Google Play store on January 23, 2013.

Spire is a wearable activity tracker worn on the waistband or bra strap designed to analyze breath rates to determine levels of tension, calm, or focus.

Spire was the first software synthesizer developed by Reveal Sound. The synthesizer utilizes multipurpose oscillators, filters, and effects units within a digital graphic interface. Spire combines elements from both Analog and software synthesizers. The synthesizer utilizes wavetable synthesis, which few commercially available software synthesizers offer. The software can be run by itself or within a digital audio workstation. The plugin has been used almost exclusively in dance music.