[f. SPAWN v.]
1. The action of depositing or laying spawn.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 467/2. Spawnynge, of fysche, pissiculacio.
1653. Walton, Angler, 146. His time of breeding, or spawning.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Salmo, In the season for spawning it removes into the fresh waters again.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1824), III. 48. Their [sc. lampreys] preparation for spawning is peculiar.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 525. It is always best to repeat the spawning when the heat is on the decline.
1866. Livingstone, Last Jrnls. (1873), I. 95. The female becomes large for spawning.
fig. a. 1662. Heylin, Laud (1668), 368. The Churches cast into the same mould … at the spawning of the second separation.
2. attrib., as spawning force, season, time, etc.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 245. If a man do the same with a female in spawning time, hee shall haue as many milters follow after her.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Sat., II. viii. 58, III. 343. This Fish, Mæcenas, big with Spawn was caught, For after Spawning-time its Flesh is naught.
1799. Monthly Rev., XXX. 51. To prevent the destruction of this most valuable fish, during the spawning season.
1833. J. Rennie, Alph. Angling, 66. It is of much importance for the angler to attend to the spawning time of trout.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Race, Wks. (Bohn), II. 20. The spawning force of the [British] race. Ibid. (1860), Cond. Life, Considerations, Ibid. 415. This spawning productivity is not noxious or needless.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 320. Protection is accorded to all fish in the spawning season.
1883. Wallem, Fish Supply Norway, 6. The codfish … are … of 10 or 11 lbs. weight alive, and their errand seems only to be that of a first spawning-trip.
b. In the sense ‘in which spawning is performed,’ as spawning-bed, -ground, -pan, -place, -pond.
1771. Phil. Trans., LXI. 315. The first is called the spawning-pond.
a. 1841. in Penny Cycl., XX. 363/2. Three pairs have been seen on the spawning-bed at the same time.
1866. Chambers’s Encycl., VIII. 446/2. Notable from time immemorial as favourite spawning-places.
1883. Wallem, Fish Supply Norway, 12. Therefore caplin is used for bait, and is caught only for that purpose on its spawning-grounds.
1883. Earll, in Goode, Fish Indust. U.S., 77. A few spawning-pans, dippers, and pails, in which to impregnate the eggs.
