Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To remove surgically the ovaries of (an animal).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The male red-deer or hart in his third year.
  • To castrate (a female) by extirpating the ovaries.
  • See spae.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To remove or extirpate the ovaries of, as a sow or a bitch; to castrate (a female animal).
  • noun (Zoöl.) The male of the red deer in his third year; a spade.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To remove or destroy the ovaries (of an animal) in order that it cannot become pregnant.
  • noun Rare spelling of spayard.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb remove the ovaries of

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English spaien, from Anglo-Norman espeier, to cut with a sword, from espee, sword, from Latin spatha; see spathe.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Middle English verb spayen.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See spayard.

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