spayed, ppl. a.
(speɪd)
Also 6 spaied, spaide, 7 spaid, spead(e, spade, 8 speyed.
[f. spay v.]
Having the ovaries excised.
| c 1410 Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) xi, And also oo spayed bycche lasteth longer in hir bonte þenne oþer two þat be not spayed. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 154 b, The spaide Bitches do bite sorest. 1607 Markham Cavel. v. ix. 50 If they be speade or gelte mares, they be the worst of al. a 1658 Cleveland Poems (1677) 39 The Groom is Rampant, but the Bride is Spade. 1684 Lond. Gaz. No. 1906/4 Stolen.., a Spaid Bay Mare about 15 hands high. a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1757) 408 Such a sow was worth less by two shillings..than a spayed sow. 1779 Phil. Trans. LXIX. 286 When they are preserved it is..for all the purposes of an ox or spayed heifer. 1813 Sporting Mag. XLII. 23 Attended only by his two faithful spayed bitches. 1851 H. Stephens Bk. Farm (ed. 2) I. 256/2 A quey-calf whose ovaries have been obliterated, to prevent her breeding, is a spayed heifer, or a spayed quey. 1859 Todd's Cycl. Anat. V. 573/1 The spayed animal continued to breed until she was six years old. |