v. [OE. forspendan, f. FOR- pref.1 + spendan to SPEND. Cf. OHG. vorspentôn.] trans. To spend completely: † a. To exhaust (money or property).
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. i. § 23. Swiðost ealle hys speda hy forspendað.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 31. Swa þet ic mine oðre god al ne fors-spende.
b. To wear out with toil, etc.; rare exc. in pa. pple.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps., li. 9. His livelynes was almoste forspent.
1652–62. Heylin, Cosmogr., III. (1682), 146. Peopled with a Colony of 7000 old Macedonian Souldiers, forespent with age, and with the travel of the Wars.
1799. Southey, Eng. Eclog., etc., Poet. Wks. III. 142.
| A painful march, | |
| Through twenty hours of night and day prolong’d, | |
| Forespent the British troops. |
1814. Cary, Dante, Inf., I. 21.
| And as a man, with difficult short breath, | |
| Forespent with toiling, ’scap’d from sea to shore. |
1884. Punch, LXXXVI. 23 Feb., 88.
| Safe through! But as the ship with canvas rent | |
| And shattered spars survives the lashing storm! | |
| Camel and leader onward fare forespent. |
Hence Forspent, forespent ppl. a.
1563. Sackville, Induct. Mirr. Mag., xii. Her body small soe withered and forespent.
1576. Newton, Lemnie’s Complex. (1633), 108. Their languishing and forespent body forsaketh their soule, and not the soule their body.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Valentine’s Day. The weary and all forspent twopenny postman sinks beneath a load of delicate embarrassments, not his own.
