▪ I. spume, n.
(spjuːm)
Also 5 spome.
[ad. OF. spume, espume (It. spuma, Sp. and Pg. espuma), or L. spūma.]
1. a. Foam, froth, frothy matter.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 265 Sche sette a caldron on the fyr,..And let it buile in such a plit, Til that sche sawh the spume whyt. c 1440 Alph. Tales 153 Þou seis I hafe no burnyng een, nor no spome at my mouthe. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health xxxiii. 18 b, Take of the white of ii egges, beat it to a waterishe spume. 1576 G. Baker Gesner's Jewel of Health 181 As soon as..purple spumes or fomes swell or rise up to the brymme, increase the fyre. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 37 English honey..yeelding little spume in decocting. 1669 Boyle Cont. New Exp. ii. (1682) 96, I thrust a snail into it, who put forth much spume or froth. [c 1706 J. Philips Poems Style of Milton (1762) 109 Sulphur, and nitrous spume, enkindling fierce.] 1710 T. Fuller Pharm. Extemp. 280 Both [litharges] are but a Spume blown off in the refining of Silver from Lead. 1727–46 Thomson Summer 1108 Thence nitre, sulphur, and the fiery spume Of fat bitumen. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xl. IV. 120 The abundant spume with which the larva..envelopes itself. 1871 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 253 Two of these animals..joined to each other by a quantity of frothy spume. |
b. spec. Foam of the sea, etc.
Common from about 1850.
| c 1440 Gesta Rom. xciv. 425 (Add. MS.), For all thing that are in the worlde are not but as a spume in the see. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuff Wks. (Grosart) V. 209 They would no more liue vnder the yoke of the Sea, or haue their heads washt with his bubbly spume. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 93 He [Nile] laves The stars with spume, all tremble with his waves. a 1687 Cotton Night Quatrains ii, His Steeds their flaming Nostrils cool in Spume of the Cerulean Pool. 1760 Phil. Trans. LII. 136 This bird therefore dipping so frequently into the spume of the sea, is probably for the food swimming amongst it, rather than to feed upon the spume itself. 1805 Naval Chron. XIII. 394 My forehead was wet with the spume of the spray. 1871 Longfellow Wayside Inn ii. Musician's T. iv. vii, A great rush of rain, Making the ocean white with spume. 1885 Manch. Exam. 2 May 6/2 Breezy seaside effects that breathe of the salt spume. |
c. In fig. uses.
| 1608 Middleton Trick to catch Old One ii. ii, A midnight surfeiter The spume of a brothel-house. 1651 Baxter Inf. Bapt. 124, I answer to this Objection, that it being but the spume of humane reason, I needed not to have given any other answer. 1836 Ruskin Essay on Lit. Wks. 1903 I. 374 These foul snails.., leaving their spume and filth on the fairest flowers of literature. 1861 Ld. Lytton & Fane Tannhäuser 14 That so august a Spirit..Should..Decline, to quench so bright a brilliancy In Hell's sick spume. |
† 2. = litharge 1, 1 b. Obs.
| c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xviii. 84 Þai take alde peper..and strewez apon it spume of siluer or of leed. 1570 Levins Manip. 188 Ye spume of lead, molybditis. Ibid. Ye spume of syluer, argyritis. 1589 Fleming Virg. Georg. iii. 51 They doo mingle therewith all The spume of argent, sulphur quicke, (or brimstone naturall). 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 118 With ceruse, or the spume of silver, it helps the colours of cicatrices. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as spume-bow; spume-flake, spume-flecked adj.; spume-stone, ? pumice-stone.
| 1831 Hodgson in Raine Mem. (1858) II. 217 There is much spume-stone like cinders and scoria in the middle. 1845 Browning How they brought the Good News v, The thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on. 1877 L. Morris Epic Hades i. 36 The spume-flecked waters..Left dry the yellow shore. 1921 W. de la Mare Veil 15 With myriad spume-bows roaring ocean swills The cold profuse abundance of the rain. |
▪ II. spume, v.
(spjuːm)
[ad. L. spūmāre (hence It. spumare, Sp. and Pg. espumar, OF. espumer), f. spūma spume n.]
1. intr. To foam or froth. Also with out.
| 13.. [see spuming ppl. a.]. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 41 At a blow hee lustelye swapping, Thee wyne fresh spuming with a draught swild vp to the bottom. 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God (1620) 382 The fetching downe of the Moone, till (saith Lucan) she spume upon such hearbes as they desire. 1721 Bailey, To Spume, to froth or Foam. 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall (1845) 132 A small door, through the chinks of which came a glow of light, and smoke was spuming out. 1860 Mayne Reid Wild Huntress xxxv, A rushing torrent, that spumed against the banks. |
| fig. 1904 Blackw. Mag. Apr. 588/1 Moore preferred that his should spume in his diary rather than his life. |
2. trans. To send or cast forth like foam.
| 1859 Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 173 Bedfordbury,..whose tumble-down tenements and reeking courts spume forth plumps of animated rags. 1865 Daily Tel. 4 Dec. 5/4 Thus do these little people..spume forth their venom day after day. 1883 R. Bridges Prometheus 599 The mountains..from their swelling flanks spumed froth of fire. |
Hence ˈspuming ppl. a.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1038 Þe spumande aspaltoun þat spyserez sellen. 1881 J. F. T. Keane Six Months in Meccah v. 105 While being laden it [the camel] gives vent to spuming, spluttering, bellows and whines. 1894 Sala London up to Date ii. 33 The spuming chalices..having made the hearts of the guests glad within them. 1894 M. Pemberton Sea Wolves x, To plunge into the cavern of spuming water which lay between the crags. |