Also 5 spome. [ad. OF. spume, espume (It. spuma, Sp. and Pg. espuma), or L. spūma.]
1. Foam, froth, frothy matter.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 265. Sche sette a caldron on the fyr,… And let it buile in such a plit, Til that sche sawh the spume whyt.
c. 1440. Alph. Tales, 153. Þou seis I hafe no burnyng een, nor no spome at my mouthe.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, xxxiii. 18 b. Take of the white or ii egges, beat it to a waterishe spume.
1576. G. Baker, trans. Gesner’s Jewell of Health, 181. As soon as … purple spumes or fomes swell or rise up to the brymme, increase the fyre.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 37. English honey … yeelding little spume in decocting.
1669. Boyle, Contn. New Exp., II. (1682), 96. I thrust a snail into it, who put forth much spume or froth.
[c. 1706. J. Philips, Poems Style of Milton (1762), 109. Sulphur, and nitrous spume, enkindling fierce.]
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp., 280. Both [litharges] are but a Spume blown off in the refining of Silver from Lead.
1727–46. Thomson, Summer, 1108. Thence nitre, sulphur, and the fiery spume Of fat bitumen.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xl. IV. 120. The abundant spume with which the larva … envelopes itself.
1871. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 253. Two of these animals … joined to each other by a quantity of frothy spume.
b. spec. Foam of the sea, etc.
Common from about 1850.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xciv. 425 (Add. MS.). For all thing that are in the worlde are not but as a spume in the see.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, Wks. (Grosart), V. 209. They would no more liue vnder the yoke of the Sea, or haue their heads washt with his bubbly spume.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 93. He [Nile] laves The stars with spume, all tremble with his waves.
a. 1687. Cotton, Night Quatrains, ii. His Steeds their flaming Nostrils cool In Spume of the Cerulean Pool.
1760. Phil. Trans., LII. 136. This bird therefore dipping so frequently into the spume of the sea, is probably for the food swimming amongst it, rather than to feed upon the spume itself.
1805. Naval Chron., XIII. 394. My forehead was wet with the spume of the spray.
1871. Longf., Wayside Inn, II. Musician’s T., IV. vii. A great rush of rain, Making the ocean white with spume.
1885. Manch. Exam., 2 May, 6/2. Breezy seaside effects that breathe of the salt spume.
c. In fig. uses.
1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch Old One, II. ii. A midnight surfeiter The spume of a brothel-house.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 124. I answer to this Objection, that it being but the spume of humane reason, I needed not to have given any other answer.
1836. Ruskin, Essay on Lit., Wks. 1903, I. 374. These foul snails…, leaving their spume and filth on the fairest flowers of literature.
1861. Ld. Lytton & Fane, Tannhäuser, 14. That so august a Spirit … Should … Decline, to quench so bright a brilliancy In Hell’s sick spume.
† 2. = LITHARGE 1, 1 b. Obs.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xviii. 84. Þai take alde peper … and strewez apon it spume of siluer or of leed.
1570. Levins, Manip., 188. Ye spume of lead, molybditis. Ibid. Ye spume of syluer, argyritis.
1589. Fleming, Virg. Georg., III. 51. They doo mingle therewith all The spume of argent, sulphur quicke, (or brimstone naturall).
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 118. With ceruse, or the spume of silver, it helps the colours of cicatrices.
3. attrib. and Comb., as spume-flake, -flecked adj.; spume-stone, ? pumice-stone.
1831. Hodgson, in Raine, Mem. (1858), II. 217. There is much spume-stone like cinders and scoria in the middle.
1845. Browning, How they brought the Good News, v. The thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on.
1877. L. Morris, Epic Hades, I. 36. The spume-flecked waters … Left dry the yellow shore.
