spent, pa. pple. and ppl. a.
(spɛnt)
[spend v.1]
I. In predicative uses.
1. a. Of material things: Expended, consumed, used up completely.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 468/2 Spent, expensus, dispensatus. 1450 in Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. Var. Coll. IV. 85 The vitailes of oure seid Towne ben al moste spent & consumed. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. V, 14 b, Their vitaile was in maner al spent, and newe they coulde gette none. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. v. 8 These Eyes, like Lampes, whose wasting Oyle is spent, Waxe dimme. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vii. 329 The..cause of our Arriuall here, was in regard of our fresh Water that was spent. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 34 When the Liquor wherin they swim is almost spent and dried up. 1769 Sir W. Jones Palace Fortune Poems (1777) 19 His guards retir'd, his glimmering taper spent. 1837 Lockhart Scott I. xi. 417 When the lamp of his own genius was all but spent. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 611 Their powder and ball were spent. 1883 Browning Jocoseria 116 Our acquist Of life is spent. |
† b. Wrecked; drowned. Obs. rare.
| c 1477 Caxton Jason 76 b, And thus by this waye they [i.e. ships] were all lost and spent. 1626 Whitburn Par. Reg. 17 July, John Burne of Sheels, being casten forth of a Cobble and spent in the sea. |
2. Passed, gone; come to an end; over: a. Of time. Also far spent (far adv. 3 c).
| 1528 Gardiner in Burnet Hist. Ref., Rec. i. ii. (Pocock) IV. 127 The day being then spent. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 182 The time is farre spente. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, ii. i. 154 His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be. 1611 Bible Rom. xiii. 12 The night is farre spent. 1615 Sandys Trav. 87 January being now well spent, we departed from Constantinople. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 206 Day is yet not spent. 1724 Gay Captives i. (1772) 19 Is night near spent? 1841 Browning Pippa Passes Poems (1905) 189 New year's day is over and spent. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xi. 79 The day was already far spent. |
b. Of things, material and immaterial.
| c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. cvii, And thou in this shalt finde thy monument, When tyrants crests and tombs of brasse are spent. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 7 The raine is spent. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. 237 Till both the immediate bloods of George Stiles, the paternal grandfather, are spent. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 496 The lease..determined by the estate tail being spent. |
3. a. Of persons or animals: Deprived of force or strength; tired or worn out by labour, exertion, hardship, etc.; completely exhausted.
| 1591 Savile Tacitus, Hist. i. xii. 7 Galba was spent and feeble for age. 1647 Hexham i. (Hunting), The Hart, Stagg, Hinde, Buck, or Doe, is spent. 1691 Ray Creation i. (1704) 159 Why the Hare when she is near spent makes up a Hill? 1713 Addison Cato iv. iv, Now thou seest me Spent, overpower'd, despairing of success. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 33 Many..quite spent by the fatigues of their flight, drop down into the sea. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xlv, So very weak and spent she felt. |
| transf. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. i. 319 When long-renowned Troy lay spent in hostile fire. |
b. Const. with age, fatigue, toil, etc.
Freq. from c 1600 to 1730.
| 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 137 Ertogrul now spent with age, shortly after died. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iii. vi. 63 Almost spent with hunger, I am falne in this offence. 1703 Pope Thebais 537 On the cold marble spent with toil he lies. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 5 Being spent with fatigue, I..sat me down to die. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam x. xxxvii, They will sleep with luxury spent. 1867 F. Parkman Jesuits in N. Amer. iv. (1875) 26 Spent with travel, and weakened by precarious and unaccustomed fare. |
4. a. Of things: Exhausted of the active or effective power or principle.
| 1596 Lodge Marg. Amer. F iv b, Thy sap by course of time is blent, My sence by care and age is spent. 1633 T. James Voy. 85 Our tooles were all so spent, that we could cut none. 1665 Manley Grotius' Low C. Wars 437 For by the..long distance of place, the Shot was spent, before it came to the place, which it was intended to batter. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. 36 At length when the Creatures strength is spent, they..knock it on the head. a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1757) 154 The malt is spent and wasted before it is laid in the grounds. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 201 If this acquired velocity be quite spent. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam iv. xxx, Though their lustre now was spent and faded. 1883 Manch. Exam. 28 Nov. 5/1 The vigour and ‘go’ infused into the party..would show symptoms of being spent. |
b. Naut. Of the tide or a current.
| c 1595 Capt. Wyatt Dudley's Voy. (Hakl. Soc.) 3 Our master thought it not good to turne downe the channell, the tide beinge soe far spent. 1616 J. Lane Contn. Sqr.'s T. vii. 359 Then in hee bore for land, till th' tyde was spent. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 143 When I had made some⁓thing more than a League of Way by the Help of this Current or Eddy, I found it was spent. 1743 Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 137 And the Tide being spent, we put into a small Cove, and made fast. |
II. In attributive uses.
5. a. Of persons or animals: = sense 3.
| a 1563 R. Ascham Schoolm. (Arb.) 152 The talke of a spent old man. 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. ii. 8 It stood, As two spent Swimmers, that doe cling together. 1715 Pope Iliad ii. 465 Let..each spent courser at the chariot blow. 1825 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 292, I remember the..squire and his..chaplain casting home on spent horses. 1859 Jephson Brittany xii. 193 The English archers..charged down..upon the now spent and wearied French. |
b. Of fish: Exhausted by spawning; having recently spawned. Also ellipt. as n., a spent herring.
| 1864 Intell. Observ. V. 369 After the performance of this function the fish is sickly and weak, and is then called a Shotten or Spent fish. 1866 Chambers's Encycl. VIII. 446/2 Salmon, which have completed their spawning, continue for some time..very unfit for the table... They are called ‘foul fish’, or more distinctively, ‘spent fish’, or Kelts. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 69, 1 Barrel Large Full Herrings... 1 Barrel Spent Herrings. 1957 W. C. Hodgson Herring & its Fishery ii. 18 In this area [of the North Sea] there are large shoals of small immature herrings of low fat-content mixed with recovered spents that are just beginning to fatten. 1975 New Yorker 22 Dec. 55/1 April and May are the slack months, since the spring spawning has by then completed itself, and the herring are what are known as ‘spents’—thin, indolent, not worth the catching. |
c. spent gnat, a kind of artificial fly used in trout fishing.
| 1867 F. Francis Angling vi. (1880) 229 The black drake, or spent gnat, as it is sometimes called. 1894 Daily News 9 June 832/1 All kinds were tried, including the spent gnat, but the fish would have none of them. |
6. a. Of things: Exhausted, worn out, used up; no longer active, effective, or serviceable.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 108 That the spent Earth may gather heart again; And, better'd by Cessation, bear the Grain. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 322 If the action of one becomes very great for a century or more, the others assume the appearance of spent volcanos. 1850 Whittier To Avis Keene 38 Where spent waves glimmer up the beach. 1883 R. Broughton Belinda II. 189, ‘I should like to sit down,’ says Belinda, in a spent voice. |
b. Of arrows, balls, or shot.
| 1697 Dryden æneid ix. 906 Heaps of spent Arrows fall and strew the Ground. 1799 Naval Chron. I. 169 A spent ball..hit him. 1802 James Milit. Dict. s.v., Spent balls..are frequently fatal in their effects. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. ii. ix. I. 153 [He] declared in solemn Diet, the Pope's ban to be mere spent shot. |
c. Of hops, tan, etc., from which the essential properties have been extracted.
| 1826 Art of Brewing (ed. 2) 105 If the disorder do not subside readily, a gyle of spent hops thrown in will generally be advantageous. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 390 Coverings for the surface of the ground include dead leaves,..spent tan,..rotten dung,..&c. 1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Org. vi. §i. 372 A quantity of common salt is next added to separate the spent leys. 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 390 The spent liquor..is discharged into the stream. |
7. In comb. with out.
| 1620 Dekker Dream Wks. (Grosart) III. 18 The Terrestiall Pauement burn'd, In which the Starres to spent-out Snuffes were turnd. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair lxi, A spent-out, bootless life of defeat and disappointment. |