fountain

plural fountains

1. originallyA natural source of water; a spring.

   A little fountaine became a riuer, and there was light, & the Sunne, and much water: this riuer is Eſther, whō the King married and made Queene.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Esther 10:6

   Synonyms: fount, syke, wellspring

2. An artificial, usually ornamental, water feature (usually in a garden or public place) consisting of one or more streams of water originating from a statue or other structure.

   His house is right beside that fountain on Street 15.

3. The structure from which an artificial fountain can issue.

   As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.

   1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, →OL

4. A reservoir from which liquid can be drawn.

   They heard her rouse the sleeping servant, and with her enter the kitchen; then the noise of a fire being lighted and the fountain being filled came to the watchers.

   1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 208

5. figurativelyA source or origin of a flow (e.g., of favors or knowledge).

   My lighter moods are like to these, ⁠That out of words a comfort win; ⁠But there are other griefs within, And tears that at their fountain freeze; […]

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 33

   1 more example

   Nothing will pleaſe ſome Men, but Books ſtuff’d with Antiquity, groaning under the weight of Learned Quotations drawn from the Fountains: And what is all this but Pilfering.

   1700, Tom Brown, Amusements Serious and Comical, calculated for the Meridian of London, page 5

6. governmentA roundel barry wavy argent and azure.

   Crest : A boar's head couped gold semy of fountains armed gules. Motto : REMIS VELISQUE. Granted by the College of Arms 1966.

   1928, New England Historic Genealogical Society. Committee on Heraldry, A Roll of Arms

   1 more example

   Argent, seme of fountains on a chief azure a Lorraine cross and an oak leaf of the first. Crest, None. Motto, Able and Ready. The blue of the shield represents Infantry. The fountains are emblematic of Arizona,[…]

   1953, United States. Department of the Army. Office of Military History, The Army Lineage Book, page 828

7. artsA juggling pattern typically done with an even number of props where each prop is caught by the same hand that throws it.
8. USA soda fountain.

   A Sproke was a soft drink Gloria and I had created with Jimbo’s help at the Banana Shack. It was basically fountain Coke mixed with fountain Sprite.

   2018, Chris Grabenstein, Sandapalooza Shake-up, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 67

   1 more example

   He takes out a soup bowl, fills it with Pepsi from the fountain, and places it carefully on the counter in front of the boy. “That'll be a quarter,” he says professionally.

   2014, Danielle Sarver Coombs, Bob Batchelor, We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life... and Always Has, page 222

9. USA drink poured from a soda fountain, or the cup it is poured into.
10. A ground-based firework that projects sparks similar to a water fountain.
11. figurativelyAnything that resembles a fountain in operation.

    1 more example

    Travellers over the London & North Western main line in bygone days will need no reminder of the pattering of cinders on the carriage roofs, the fountains of sparks from the chimneys at night and the distance from which the exhaust of approaching locomotives could be heard, due to the fierceness of their blast in such conditions.

    1962 June, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 399

present singular third person fountains · participle present fountaining · participle past fountained · past fountained

1. intransitiveTo flow or gush as if from a fountain.

   Lava fountained from the volcano.

   1 more example

   The fireflies swept toward him from all directions, in streams and rivers and currents of light, a vortex a hundred yards across, spiraling into the brighter center. They met over his supine body like ocean breakers, cascading, fountaining into the air.

   1978, Tom Reamy, Blind Voices

plural Fountains

1. A placename:
   1. countableuncountableA ghost town in Mendocino County, California, United States.
   2. countableuncountableA city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, named after Fountain Creek (Arkansas River tributary).
   3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Bay County, Florida, United States.
   4. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Monroe County, Illinois, United States.
   5. countableuncountableA city in Fountain County, Indiana, United States, USA formerly known as Portland.
   6. countableuncountableA village in Mason County, Michigan, United States.
   7. countableuncountableA city in Fillmore County, Minnesota, United States.
   8. countableuncountableA town in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States.
   9. countableuncountableSynonym of Fountaintown, North Carolina.

      Synonyms: Fountaintown, North Carolina

   10. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Mineral County, West Virginia, United States.
   11. countableuncountableA town in Juneau County, Wisconsin, United States.
2. countableuncountableA topographic surname.