Also 7–9 spue. [f. the vb.]
1. That which is spewed or cast up from the stomach; vomited matter; vomit. Also fig. or in fig. context.
1609. Markham, Famous Wh. (1868), 32. Thus to mine old trade, and spew of hell, Onely for gaine, agen I basely fell.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, I. iii. 29. That foul spue Which the false Dragon casts in every coast.
1660. Milton, Free Commw., Wks. 1851, V. 445. The Language of thir infernal Pamphlets, the Spue of every Drunkard, every Ribald.
1705. Swift, Salamander, 66, Wks. 1841, I. 607. She soon would find the same effects, Her tainted carcase to pursue, As from the salamander’s spew.
1739. R. Bull, trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 266. ’Twas nothing but his Due, Instead of Laurel to be crown’d with Spue.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, I. II. iv. 159. Throwing upon another from the navel downwards to his foot, spue, or urine, or ordure.
b. techn. (See quot.)
1893. Labour Commission, Gloss. No. 9, Spew-out, the emanation similar to treacle of the glucose from the uppers or leather when kept for a time.
2. dial. The fourth swarm of bees in a season.
1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., IV. I. 182. The swarm is the first and greatest number, the cast is the next greatest, the colt the next, and the spew the least of all. Ibid., II. 115.
1854. in Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss.
3. dial. A wet, marshy piece of ground; a place in a field, etc., where water oozes up.
1794. P. Foot, Agric. Midl., 45 (E.D.D.). The water … appears at the foot or in the middle of a declivity, and causes a spew, a squall, or boggy piece of ground.
1868. R. W. Huntley, Gloss. Cotswold (Glouc.) Dial., Spew, a spungy piece of ground.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, viii. The little pitch wells—‘spues’ or ‘galls,’ as we should call them in Hampshire.
