Forms: 5 spawnyn (spanyn), 5–7 spawne (6 spaune), 7– spawn. [app. for *spaund, ad. AF. espaundre, = OF. espandre (mod.F. épandre) to shed, spill, pour out:—L. expandĕre EXPAND v.
The AF. word occurs in the treatise of Walter de Bibbesworth (Wright Voc. I. 164) in the line ‘Soffret le peysoun en ewe espaundre,’ and is glossed by scheden his roune, ‘shed his roe’ (Skeat), misprinted by Wright as scheden him frome.]
I. intr. 1. Of fish, etc.: To cast spawn.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), V. xiv. (1859), 80. Whiche fisshes he putte in the stewe, where they haue spawned and multyplyed.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 467/2. Spawnyn, as fyschys (K. spanyn), pisciculo.
1530. Palsgr., 727/1. Never use to ete fyschys, whan they spawne, for they be nat holsom than.
1570. Levins, Manip., 44. To spaune, oua gignere.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 560. The Arabians and Lybians eat them before they haue spawned.
1674. trans. Scheffer’s Lapland, xvi. 81. The fishermen, at those times when the fishes do spawn, do alwaies live on the side of some river.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xxxi. (1737), 143. I saw an infinite Number of Fish … milting, spawning.
1771. Phil. Trans., LXI. 317. Carp spawn in May, June, or July.
1821. Shelley, Adonais, xxix. The sun comes forth, and many reptiles spawn.
1865. J. Hatton, Bitter Sweets, xxvi. The bream and the tench had spawned in the river.
transf. 1673. Temple, Observ. U. Prov., Wks. 1720, I. 11. These Nations, which seem’d to spawn in every Age, and … discharged their own native Countries of so vast Numbers.
2. To increase or develop after the manner of spawn; to become reproductive.
1607. R. C[arew], trans. Estienne’s World Wond., 151. Seeds of sinne, which naturally breed and (as it were) spawne in our hearts.
1658. A. Fox, Würtz’ Surg., I. iii. 10. Then is that wound in that natural swelling hindered,… then it begins to spawn and swell.
1702. Phil. Trans., XXIII. 1260. These [flower-spikes] are thick set in oblong heads, which sometime spawn or divide at the bottom.
b. To grow or develop into something.
1677. Gilpin, Dæmonol. (1867), 131. Error … stops not at one or two falsehoods, but is apt to spawn into many others.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, II. vii. 243. Navigation had not spawn’d into Sholes, or afterwards.
3. To issue or come forth like or after the manner of spawn.
1657. W. Morice, Coena quasi Κοινὴ, iii. 136. These dismal Heresies which have lately spawn’d.
1693. Locke, Educ., § 124. [Lying] is so ill a Quality, and the mother of so many ill ones that spawn from it.
b. Of persons: To swarm out.
1718. Ramsay, Christ’s Kirk Gr., III. xix. The wives and gytlings a’ spawn’d out O’er middings and o’er dykes.
4. To swarm or teem with something.
1818. Southey, Ess. (1832), II. 137. The infidelity with which some of the Scotch Schools have spawned during the last half century.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Land. The rivers and the surrounding sea spawn with fish.
II. trans. 5. To produce or generate as spawn or in large numbers; also, in contemptuous use, to give birth to (a person).
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., III. ii. 115. Some report, a Sea-maid spawn’d him. Some, that he was begot betweene two Stock-fishes.
1687. Montagu & Prior, Hind & Panth. Transv., 9. Or else reforming Corah spawn’d this Class.
1730. Southall, Buggs, 24. They generally spawn about fifty at a time.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 827. A race obscene, Spawn’d in the muddy beds of Nile, came forth, Polluting Egypt.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, III. vii. A race spawned perhaps in the morasses of some Northern forest hardly yet cleared.
1867. Emerson, May-Day & Other Pieces, Wks. (Bohn), III. 442. She spawneth men as mallows fresh.
1891. Lounsbury, Stud. Chaucer, III. vii. 198. He [Lipscomb] was a poet of the kind the eighteenth century spawned in profusion.
b. With forth, upon.
1619. Hieron, Wks., I. 644. Nature hath (as it were) spawned vs forth into this worldly sea.
1838. Lytton, Alice, II. VI. ii. 210. But oh, that a nation which has known a Corneille should ever spawn forth a Janin!
1865. J. G. Holland, Plain Talk, i. 31. Then think of multitudes of men spawned upon the country every year by our medical institutions.
6. To engender, produce, bring forth, give rise to. Also with forth and out.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 62. Her eies in their closing seemed to spaune forth in their outward sharpe corners new created seed pearle.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 202. But well it were if meer Speculation were onely barren;… In the Church it spawneth Heresies.
1683. Kennett, trans. Erasm. on Folly, 47. The curiosity of the Greeks spawned so many subtleties.
1708. Swift, Sacramental Test, Wks. 1755, II. I. 137. What practices such principles as these … may spawn, when they are laid out to the sun, you may determine at leisure.
1792. Burke, Lett. to Sir H. Langrishe, Wks. 1842, I. 557. That they are not permitted to spawn a hydra of wild republicks, on principles of a pretended natural equality in man.
1863. Kingsley, Water-Bab., 23. The house looked … as if it had been all spawned in a night is mushrooms are.
b. spec. in contemptuous use with reference to literary work, utterances, etc.
1631. A. Wilson, Swisser, V. i. (1904), 89. From kissing a’ the hand to cutting a’ the throat, Sir, O you shall meet ’em, spawning out the word, With such a Grace.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Gen. x. (1662), 29. Books … come swimming into the world like shoals of Fishes, and one edition spawneth another.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 87. Of late years Mr. Bayes had regularly spawned his books.
a. 1704. Friendly Adv. to Dr. Bl—, in T. Brown, Wks. (1711), IV. 197. Such vile Heroicks … Were never spawn’d before from Irish Brains.
1713. Lond. Gaz., No. 5118/2. The Press … hath Spawn’d so many Blasphemous … Pamphlets.
1820. Byron, Juan, V. lii. But every fool describes, in these bright days, His wondrous journey…, And spawns his quarto.
1836. in W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 107. Cobbett’s prophecies were falsified as soon as spawned.
7. To supply with spawn or mycelium.
1786. Abercrombie, Gard. Assist., 205. Mushroom spawn—for spawning new beds.
8. To extract spawn from (fishes).
1884. Day, Fishes Gt. Brit., I. p. cix. The mode of spawning or stripping fish … requires practice.
Hence Spawned ppl. a. a. Cast or deposited as spawn. b. That has emitted spawn; spent.
1866. Banffshire Gloss., 176. Speinty, a spawned fish.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 1 Feb., 3/2. Sometimes these spawned salmon resemble the genuine article so closely that only an expert can distinguish the difference.
