Talk:sprung

Tea Room discussion
See Special:PermanentLink/24549076. DCDuring TALK 22:58, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Long ago, when I first heard this term, in the song “Baby Got Back”, I assumed it meant something rather *cough* physiological. More recently, I've heard it in various contexts where that doesn't make sense — its current sense definitely matches our def (“utterly infatuated”) — but I'm wondering if it did use to have that other sense (in which case the current sense is presumably a generalization or amelioration or something), or if I just had a dirty mind.

Also, I've added some cites, rewritten the def, added usage notes, etc., based on usages I've encountered and usages I found via Google, but if someone is more familiar with the term than I am, please have at it!

—Ruakh TALK 01:18, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Another sense of "sprung"
If a mechanical spring or spring-like object has become distorted or excessively deformed due to over-excursion such that it no longer functions as designed, it can be said to be "sprung".

Example: On raising the hood of the car to investigate why the coolant was leaking out, I discovered that the spring clamp holding the radiator hose on was sprung, allowing the hose to fall off. GRobLewis (talk) 16:15, 3 March 2019 (UTC)