[f. as prec.]
1. Of fish, etc.: Engaged in casting spawn.
1579. E. K., Gloss. to Spenser’s Sheph. Cal., Oct., 14. Frye, is a bold Metaphore, forced from the spawning fishes.
1873. Beeton’s Dict. Comm., s.v. Norway, Spawning fish form only a small part of this fishery.
1883. Wallem, Fish Supply Norway, 15. This fishing of spawning herring has been ruined.
2. transf. Fertile; teeming; prolific.
1682. Lond. Gaz., No. 1729/3. That late horrid Confederacy,… called by the prolifick spawning name of an Association.
1867. Emerson, May-Day & Other Pieces, Wks. (Bohn), III. 439. On spawning slime my song prevails. Ibid. (1878), Misc. Papers, Fort. Republ., Ibid. 399. Then Illinois and Indiana with their spawning loins must needs be ordinary.
