Also 5–6 spaie, 6–7 spaye, 7, 9 spey; pa. pple. spade. [ad. AF. espeier, = OF. espeer to cut with a sword, f. espee (F. épée) sword.]
† 1. trans. To pierce or cut (a deer) so as to kill.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), Prol. And after whann the hert is spaied and dede he vndothe hym. Ibid., xxxiii. Þen shulde who so be moste maister þere byd somme of þe hunters go spay hym euen behynde þe shulder forwarde to þe herte.
2. To operate upon (a female, esp. the female of certain animals) so as to remove the ovaries and destroy the reproductive power.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), xi. And bycause þei shuld not lese her tyme, men make hem yspayed, saue þose men will kepe open to bere whelpes.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, lxvi. 186. The kydneys whiche Gelders take awaye from a bytche … when they spaye hir.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 150 b. The sowes are spaied by burning the matrixe with an irone.
c. 1600[?]. Distr. Emperor, II. i. in Bullen, O. Pl. (1884), III. 188. If she had been spayd And all mankynd made Euenucks.
1639. T. de Gray, Expert Farrier, Ep. Ded. b. A Gelder who spayes more then a hundred Fillies.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. iii. 149/247. [He] Knew … When Sows, and Bitches may be spade.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Bitch, But if you would spay your Bitch, it must be done before ever she has a Litter of Whelps.
1799. [A. Young], Agric. Linc., 297. He … spays about half the heifers.
1820. Shelley, Œd. Tyr., I. 72. Out with your knife … and spay those Sows That load the earth with Pigs.
1879. J. M. Duncan, Clin. Lect. Dis. Women, iv. 48. Lastly, it has of late years frequently been decided to spay women in this disease.
fig. a. 1658. Cleveland, Gen. Poems (1677), 10. Geld your loose wits, & let your Muse be spade.
