spawner
(ˈspɔːnə(r))
[f. spawn v. or n.]
1. A female fish, esp. at spawning time.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 264 The spawner, when the time serueth for generation, followeth after the male. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 90 The Romanes..used none but in-land Fish-ponds, storing them with Spawners of the larger size. 1771 Phil. Trans. LXI. 317 As the milter, by a natural instinct, follows the spawner. 1787 Best Angling (ed. 2) 5 With a few Milters and Spawners,..a whole country may be stocked in a short time. 1819 Sporting Mag. IV. 266 In stocking ponds, put from three to five spawners to one milter. 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 59 Many late spawners are occupied with family cares until the last of July. |
† b. Applied to a woman. Obs.
| 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster iv. ii, Yet you may do well to spare your Ladies Bed-fellow, and her you may keep for a Spawner. 1675 Cotton Burlesque upon B. 38 By no means meddle with that Spawner. For if thou dost,..A graceless Child will be begot. |
2. One who, or that which, spawns, produces, etc., in various senses.
| 16.. in Hartlib's Legacy (1655) 117 The least Spawners from the root will grow. Any twigs cut from the body will grow. 1668 R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. i. (1702) 15 Your corrupt Judges are the great Spawners that supply our Lake. 1839 Lady Lytton Cheveley (ed. 2) II. ii. 58 Every one knew Lord de Clifford.., a spawner of Whig pamphlets, and a crack political writer. |
3. A spawn-collector (Cent. Dict. 1891).