vbl. sb. [f. SPAY v.] The operation of excising the ovaries in female animals or in women. Also attrib.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, 18. In spaying of hir, it shal not be good to take away all the rootes or strings of the veynes.
1611. Cotgr., Chastrement, a gelding, libbing, speying.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 407. If pigs be cut … they ought not to be suffered to creep through hedges, lest the thread which sows up the spaying hole be drawn out.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Sow, As for the Spaying of a Sow, which is the Gelding of that Animal [etc.].
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 988. The spaying of the female calves … is an operation of greater nicety.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 25. The operation of spaying or excising the ovaries.
1879. J. M. Duncan, Clin. Lect. Dis. Women, iv. 44. Spaying, an operation which has been introduced recently into gynæcological practice.
