[f. as prec.]
1. That spews, in senses of the vb.
1388. Wyclif, Isaiah xix. 14. A drunkun man and spuynge.
1560. Rolland, Seven Sages, 97. Thow poysonit spewand spout.
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. I. 1306. Earth’s exhalations hot Are spewing Ætnas that to Heav’n aspire.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, XVIII. clxi. (1702), 279.
| That Simon he outspit in Heresy, | |
| And higher than his spewing Father flew. |
1856. Deil’s Hallowe’en, 16 (E.D.D.). Some dreepit a’ wi’ spewin’ sairs.
2. Agric. Of ground: Characterized by the oozing out of moisture; excessively wet; spewy. Freq. in the 17th c.; now rare or Obs.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. x. 24. Spewing grounds ouer-soaked with sower moisture are well releeued by being sowne with Oates.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp. (1865), 11. The Soyle is for the generall a warme kinde of earth, there being little cold-spewing land.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, xvii. 36. In moist, and boggy places they will flourish wonderfully, so the ground be not spewing.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 11. Chalk is healing, and therefore proper for clay, cold, and spewing grounds.
3. Issuing as if spewed out.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, V. x. 540. These Oxen are fittest for those soyles which are tough and firme, without anie spewing moisture in them.
1675. Evelyn, Philos. Disc. Earth (1676), 86. Cutting your Furrow upwards to the Bog, about a foot beneath the spewing water.
1786. Burns, Vision, iii. The spewing reek That fill’d, wi’ hoast-provoking smeek, The auld, clay biggin.
