Spent

pa. pple. and ppl. a. [SPEND v.¹]

  I.  In predicative uses.

  1.  Of material things: Expended, consumed, used up completely.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 468/2. Spent, expensus, dispensatus.

1450.  in Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., Var. Coll. IV. 85. The vitailes of oure seid Towne ben al moste spent & consumed.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 14 b. Their vitaile was in maner al spent, and newe they coulde gette none.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., II. v. 8. These Eyes, like Lampes, whose wasting Oyle is spent, Waxe dimme.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., VII. 329. The … cause of our Arriuall here, was in regard of our fresh Water that was spent.

1664.  Power, Exp. Philos., I. 34. When the Liquor wherin they swim is almost spent and dried up.

1769.  Sir W. Jones, Palace Fortune, Poems (1777), 19. His guards retir’d, his glimmering taper spent.

1837.  Lockhart, Scott, I. xi. 417. When the lamp of his own genius was all but spent.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 611. Their powder and ball were spent.

1883.  Browning, Jocoseria, 116. Our acquist Of life is spent.

  † b.  Wrecked; drowned. Obs. rare.

c. 1477.  Caxton, Jason, 76 b. And thus by this waye they [i.e., ships] were all lost and spent.

1626.  Whitburn Par. Reg., 17 July. John Burne of Sheels, being casten forth of a Cobble and spent in the sea.

  2.  Passed, gone; come to an end; over: a. Of time. Also far spent (FAR adv. 3 c).

1528.  Gardiner, in Burnet, Hist. Ref., Rec., I. ii. (Pocock), IV. 127. The day being then spent.

1560.  Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 182. The time is farre spente.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 154. His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be.

1611.  Bible, Rom. xiii. 12. The night is farre spent.

1615.  Sandys, Trav., 87. Ianuary being now well spent, we departed from Constantinople.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VIII. 206. Day is yet not spent.

1724.  Gay, Captives, I. (1772), 19. Is night near spent?

1841.  Browning, Pippa Passes, Poems (1905), 189. New year’s day is over and spent.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xi. 79. The day was already far spent.

  b.  Of things, material and immaterial.

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonn., cvii. And thou in this shalt finde thy monument, When tyrants crests and tombs of brasse are spent.

1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 7. The raine is spent.

1766.  Blackstone, Comm., II. 237. Till both the immediate bloods of George Stiles, the paternal grandfather, are spent.

1818.  Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), III. 496. The lease … determined by the estate tail being spent.

  3.  Of persons or animals: Deprived of force or strength; tired or worn out by labor, exertion, hardship, etc.; completely exhausted.

1591.  Savile, Tacitus, Hist., I. xii. 7. Galba was spent and feeble for age.

1647.  Hexham, I. (Hunting), The Hart, Stagg, Hinde, Buck, or Doe, is spent.

1691.  Ray, Creation, I. (1704), 159. Why the Hare when she is near spent makes up a Hill?

1713.  Addison, Cato, IV. iv. Now thou seest me Spent, overpower’d, despairing of success.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), V. 33. Many … quite spent by the fatigues of their flight, drop down into the sea.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xlv. So very weak and spent she felt.

  transf.  1612.  Drayton, Poly-olb., i. 319. When long-renowned Troy lay spent in hostile fire.

  b.  Const. with age, fatigue, toil, etc.

  Freq. from c. 1600 to 1730.

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 137. Ertogrul now spent with age, shortly after died.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., III. vi. 63. Almost spent with hunger, I am falne in this offence.

1703.  Pope, Thebais, 537. On the cold marble spent with toil he lies.

1760–72.  H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 5. Being spent with fatigue, I despaired of any deliverance, and sat me down to die.

1817.  Shelley, Rev. Islam, X. xxxvii. They will sleep with luxury spent.

1867.  Parkman, Jesuits in N. Amer., iv. (1875), 26. Spent with travel, and weakened by precarious and unaccustomed fare.

  4.  Of things: Exhausted of the active or effective power or principle.

1596.  Lodge, Marg. Amer., F iv b.

1633.  T. James, Voy., 85. Our tooles were all so spent, that we could cut none.

1665.  Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Wars, 437. For by the … long distance of place, the Shot was spent, before it came to the place, which it was intended to batter.

1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. 36. At length when the Creatures strength is spent, they … knock it on the head.

a. 1722.  Lisle, Husb. (1757), 154. The malt is spent and wasted before it is laid in the grounds.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 201. If this acquired velocity be quite spent.

1817.  Shelley, Rev. Islam, IV. xxx. Though their lustre now was spent and faded.

1883.  Manch. Exam., 28 Nov., 5/1. The vigour and ‘go’ infused into the party … would show symptoms of being spent.

  b.  Naut. Of the tide or a current.

c. 1595.  Capt. Wyatt, Dudley’s Voy. (Hakl. Soc.), 3. Our master thought it not good to turne downe the channell, the tide beinge soe far spent.

1616.  J. Lane, Contn. Sqr.’s T., VII. 359. Then in hee bore for land, till th’ tyde was spent.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 142–3. When I had made something more than a League of Way by the Help of this Current or Eddy, I found it was spent.

1743.  Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 137. And the Tide being spent, we put into a small Cove, and made fast.

  II.  In attributive uses.

  5.  Of persons or animals: = sense 3.

a. 1568.  Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 152. The talke of a spent old man.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., I. ii. 8. It stood, As two spent Swimmers, that doe cling together.

1715.  Pope, Iliad, II. 465. Let … each spent courser at the chariot blow.

1825.  Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 292. I remember the … squire and his … chaplain casting home on spent horses.

1859.  Jephson, Brittany, xii. 193. The English archers … charged down … upon the now spent and wearied French.

  b.  Of fish: Exhausted by spawning; having recently spawned.

1864.  Intell. Observ., V. 369. After the performance of this function the fish is sickly and weak, and is then called a Shotten or Spent fish.

1866.  Chambers’s Encycl., VIII. 446/2. Salmon, which have completed their spawning, continue for some time … very unfit for the table…. They are called ‘foul fish,’ or more distinctively, ‘spent fish,’ or Kelts.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 69. 1 Barrel Large Full Herrings…. 1 Barrel Spent Herrings.

  c.  Spent gnat, a kind of artificial fly used in trout fishing.

1867.  F. Francis, Angling, vi. (1880), 229. The black drake, or spent gnat, as it is sometimes called.

1894.  Daily News, 9 June, 832/1. All kinds were tried, including the spent gnat, but the fish would have none of them.

  6.  Of things: Exhausted, worn out, used up; no longer active, effective or serviceable.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 108. That the spent Earth may gather heart again; And, better’d by Cessation, bear the Grain.

1830.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 322. If the action of one becomes very great for a century or more, the others assume the appearance of spent volcanos.

1850.  Whittier, To Avis Keene, 38. Where spent waves glimmer up the beach.

1883.  Miss Broughton, Belinda, II. 189. ‘I should like to sit down,’ says Belinda, in a spent voice.

  b.  Of arrows, balls or shot.

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, IX. 906. Heaps of spent Arrows fall and strew the Ground.

1799.  Naval Chron., I. 169. A spent ball … hit him.

1802.  James, Milit. Dict., s.v., Spent balls … are frequently fatal in their effects.

1858.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., II. ix. I. 153. [He] declared in solemn Diet, the Pope’s ban to be mere spent shot.

  c.  Of hops, tan, etc., from which the essential properties have been extracted.

1826.  Art of Brewing (ed. 2), 105. If the disorder do not subside readily, a gyle of spent hops thrown in will generally be advantageous.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 390. Coverings for the surface of the ground include dead leaves,… spent tan, rotten dung,… &c.

1857.  Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., vi. § 1. 372. A quantity of common salt is next added to separate the spent leys.

1877.  Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 390. The spent liquor … is discharged into the stream.

  7.  In comb. with out.

1620.  Dekker, Dream, Wks. (Grosart), III. 18. The Terrestiall Pauement burn’d, In which the Starres to spent-out Snuffes were turnd.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxi. A spent-out, bootless life of defeat and disappointment.