Adjacent Words

Spay definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SPAY, v.t. [L. spado, a gelding.] To castrate the female of a beast by cutting and by taking out the uterus; as, to spay a sow.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: remove the ovaries of; "Is your cat spayed?" [syn: alter, neuter, spay, castrate]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (spayed; spaying) Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French espeer to pierce, castrate, from espee sword, from Latin spatha sword — more at spade Date: 15th century to remove the ovaries and uterus of (a female animal)

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. sterilize (a female animal) by removing the ovaries. Etymology: ME f. AF espeier, OF espeer cut with a sword f. espee sword f. L spatha: see SPATHE

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Spay Spay, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spayed; p. pr. & vb. n. Spaying.] [Cf. Armor. spac'hein, spaza to geld, W. dyspaddu to geld, L. spado a eunuch, Gr. ?.] To remove or extirpate the ovaries of, as a sow or a bitch; to castrate (a female animal).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Spay Spay, n. [Cf. Spade a spay, Spay, v. t.] (Zo["o]l.) The male of the red deer in his third year; a spade.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(spays, spaying, spayed) When a female animal is spayed, it has its ovaries removed so that it cannot become pregnant. All bitches should be spayed unless being used for breeding. = neuter, sterilize VERB: usu passive, be V-ed