| 词组 | spay, spayed, spade, spaded |
| 释义 | spay, spayed, spade, spaded Spay is a transitive verb meaning "to remove the ovaries of (a female animal)." Its most familiar use is in the form of the past participle, spayed: • ... their jittery spayed terrier —John Updike, Couples, 1968 • ... found in spayed females —Susan L. Mathews, Cats Mag., September 1984 A synonymous verb is spade, which was first recorded in 1611, and which undoubtedly originated from a misunderstanding of spayed. The OED labels spade obsolete as a synonym of spay, but we find that its use is now fairly common (quite possibly, its modern use represents a recoinage—or re-misunderstanding—rather than a continued use of the old verb). It is, however, restricted almost entirely to speech. Our only modern written evidence is from classified advertisements: • LOST German shepard [sic] spaded dog —classified advt., Springfield (Mass.) Union, 30 June 1953 Spade also sometimes appears as a misspelling of spayed: • OLD ENGLISH Sheep Dog, spade —classified advt., Denver Post, 20 Sept. 1984 |
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