spay

verb

/speɪ/UK

Etymology

From Middle English spayen, spaien, from the Anglo-Norman espeier, equivalent to the Old French espeer (“to cut with a sword”), from espee (“sword”), whence the Modern French épée.

derived from espeer
derived from espeier
inherited from spayen

Definitions

1
To destroy or remove the ovaries or uterus (of a female animal) to prevent pregnancy.
- We’re having our cat spayed as we don’t want her having kittens.
- With their eye on non-island countries, namely America, the authors of Cat Wars argue for a combination of spay/neuter programs, enclosed sanctuaries, and euthanasia.
2
The act of spaying an animal.
- I was queasy about my first spay of a far-gone feral and left it up to my vet.
Rare form of spayard.
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
1. Alternative form of spae (to foretell or divine)

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at spay. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

A definitional loop anchored at spay. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

5 hops · closes at spay

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA