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"spur" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often prodding (8 letters).
Definitions
Pointed rider's tool, projecting support, or incentive to action.
Word origin
From Middle English spure, spore, from Old English spora, spura, from Proto-West Germanic *spurō, from Proto-Germanic *spurô, from Proto-Indo-European *sperH- (“to kick”).
Used in a sentence
“Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this hour I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting; From helmet to the spur all blood he was.”
“I had hardly said the word, when Kit jumped into the saddle, and gave his horse a whip and a spur — and off it cantered, as if it were in as great a hurry to be married as Kit himself.”
“She is a theame of honour and renowne, / A ſpurre to valiant and magnanimous deeds, / Whoſe preſent courage may beate downe our foes, / And fame in time to come canonize us, [...]”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer2 curated clues
01“Heel spike”4 letters
02“Rider's heel tool”4 letters
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