a. [ad. L. spūmōs-us: see SPUMOSE a. and cf. OF. spumeux.]
1. Of the nature of, having the appearance of, froth or foam.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 164. Þe blood þat goiþ out of þe wounde wole be spumous & cleer. Ibid., 201. Þere is engendrid þere a maner spumous substaunce.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 86. If … the excrement which is voided from the mouth be spumous, pale, and crude.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 237. That spumous, frothy dew or exudation, or both, found upon Plants.
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp., 376. The Mass of Blood … render’d spumous and sparkling.
1808. Med. Jrnl., XIX. 296. Had the blood proceeded from the lungs, he judged it would have been spumous, or mixed with air bubbles.
1846. Dana, Zooph. (1848), 400. Corallum with very short calicles, truncate, rising from a spumous base.
2. Marked by foam; foaming.
1854. Dickens, Hard T., II. i. Down upon the river … rowed a crazy boat, which made a spumous track upon the water.
1876. R. F. Burton, Gorilla L., II. 62. The fierce rollers of the spumous sea broke and recoiled.
