subs. (venery).—The semen: see SPENDINGS. Hence SEED-PLOT (or SEED-LAND) = the female pudendum: see MONOSYLLABLE; RUN TO SEED = pregnant, LUMPY (q.v.).
1555. A Pore Helpe, 84.
| They saye ye leade euyll lyves | |
| With other mennes wyues, | |
| And wyll none of your owne; | |
| And so your SEDE is sowne | |
| In other mennes grounde. |
1656. R. FLETCHER, Martiall, xi. 105.
| The Phrygian Boyes in secret spent their SEED | |
| As oft as Hector’s wife rid on his [her?] Steed. |
1687. CLEVELAND, Works, ‘Vituperium Uxoris: or the Wife-hater.’
| For there where other Gard’ners here been sowing | |
| Their SEED … |
1865. SWINBURNE, Atalanta in Calydon, 107.
| Thou, I say, | |
| Althæa, since my father’s ploughshare, drawn | |
| Through fatal SEEDLAND of a female field, | |
| Furrowed thy body. |
RUN TO SEED, adv. phr. (colloquial).—1. Shabby; gone off the bloom; SEEDY (q.v.).
1837. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers (1857), 20. Large boots RUNNING rapidly TO SEED.
1891. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 4 April. He had RUN very much TO SEED: there was no gloss on his hat or boots, but any amount of it on the sleeves of his coat.
