Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Bog spavin.
- n. Bone spavin.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A disease of horses affecting the hock-joint, or joint of the hind leg between the knee and the fetlock. See bog-spavin, bloodspavin, bone-spavin.
- n. In coal-mining, the clay underlying the coal. Also called under-clay, coal-clay, seat, seat-clay, etc.
Wiktionary
- n. A disease of horses characterized by a bony swelling developed on the hock as the result of inflammation of the bones.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A disease of horses characterized by a bony swelling developed on the hock as the result of inflammation of the bones; also, the swelling itself. The resulting lameness is due to the inflammation, and not the bony tumor as popularly supposed.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a swelling of the hock joint of a horse; resulting in lameness
Etymologies
- Middle English spaven, from Old French espavain, swelling, perhaps of Germanic origin.
Examples
“-- A spavin is a chronic inflammation of the articular faces of the hock bones, ligaments and synovial membranes.”
“The above is recommended in outside callous, such as spavin, ringbone, curbs, windgalls, etc. etc.”
The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Vicious Horses
“Just last Wednesday evening I was seeing to a horse over on Atlantic—a case of bog spavin—and as chance would have it, a fire broke out in one of the warehouses, and there he was, already on the scene, furiously scribbling notes.”
“Eesa and Girhi, who are all infantry: a village seldom contains more than six or eight, and the lowest value would be ten cows or twenty Tobes. 27 Careful of his beast when at rest, the Somali Bedouin in the saddle is rough and cruel: whatever beauty the animal may possess in youth, completely disappears before the fifth year, and few are without spavin, or sprained back-sinews.”
“The diseases which are found to be hereditary in horses are scrofula, rheumatism, rickets, chronic cough, roaring, ophthalmia or inflammation of the eye, -- grease or scratches, bone spavin, curb, &c.”
“Horses three or four years of age if given work that favors hock strain, such as excavating cellars, may develop a spavin.”
“A spavin is one of the unsoundnesses of horses that may be transmitted to the offspring.”
“This condition involves the heavy gluteal muscles and may occur as a complication of azoturia, or a lameness of the hind limb that is usually due to a spavin.”
“Take of cantharides 2 oz., strong mercurial ointment 4 oz., oil of turpentine 4 oz., iodine 3 oz., mix all with a sufficiency of lard to make a thin ointment; apply to the spavin only once a day until it bursts; then oil it with sweet oil until healed.”
“A bony enlargement does not always accompany the lameness, and a spavin may be present without the horse going noticeably lame.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spavin’.
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