spring at

spring at (someone or something)

1. To leap or pounce in the direction of someone or something. The attacker sprang at her, but she managed to incapacitate him with a punch to the throat. The cat sprang at the curtains and got its claws stuck in them.
2. To choose or avail of someone or something with great alacrity or enthusiasm. I sprang at the opportunity to work with one of my favorite musicians. Online dating is actually a great way to meet new people, but you need to be prudent when it comes to actually setting up dates—don't just spring at every person who sends you a request.
See also: spring
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

spring at someone or something

to jump at someone or something. The cat sprang at me but could not sink in its claws. The spider sprang at the moth and captured it.
See also: spring
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • spring at (someone or something)
  • spring out at
  • spring out at (someone or something)
  • spring on
  • spring on someone
  • jump out at (one)
  • incapacitate (someone) for (something) for (a period of time)
  • incapacitate (someone) for (something)
  • spring up
  • Finn
References in periodicals archive
Engineers concerned with spring design and usage are invited to join Lee Spring at FAST Exhibition on September 22nd and to bring their problems as drawings, as physical components or simply as ideas yet to be realised.
Lee Spring Exhibiting at FAST Exhibition, September 2016
[h.sub.3x] stands for the thickness of the auxiliary spring at the point with a distance of x to the parabola vertex (end point of the main spring), = [h.sub.7][square root of (x/[l.sub.2])].
However, in the production of a leaf spring, the root thickness of a leaf spring is designed to be equal to the vertical offset between the vertex of the spring leaf parabola and the point in which the parabola reaches the center bolt (h + [DELTA]h in Figure 11) considering the reliability of the U bolt and reducing the stress of the spring at the U-bolt.
Efficient Method for Calculating the Composite Stiffness of Parabolic Leaf Springs with Variable Stiffness for Vehicle Rear Suspension
If the slide does not come back far enough for the slide stop to enter it's notch in the slide, you can cut 1/2 coil off the spring at a time until the slide comes back far enough to allow the stop to rise up into the slide.
Snake oil
Using a spring for a kinematic linkage element was an innovative idea and NASA conducted tests on the spring at its simulated Mars surface in Pasadena, California.
Springing into space: special machined part used on NASA's Mars vehicle