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spay

UK/speɪ/
verbC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,783 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: spayed, spaying

To spay is to operate on a female animal so she cannot breed. Get her spayed, spay the cat, spaying and neutering.

The pair of words is worth keeping straight: females are spayed and males are neutered or castrated. Done early it also lowers the risk of some cancers. The word comes from an Old French verb meaning to cut with a sword.

Definitions of spay

  1. 1verbspayTo operate on a female animal so she cannot breed.C1

    “The vet recommends that you spay your female dog to avoid unwanted puppies.”

spay is an operation.

Where it comes from

Anglo-Norman espeier means to cut with a sword, from espee, a sword, the modern French epee.

  1. Old French

    espeer — to cut with a sword

  2. Anglo-Norman

    espeier

  3. Middle English

    spayen

  4. English, today

    spay

Built from

  • espee · Old French — sword

From Middle English spayen, spaien, from the Anglo-Norman espeier, equivalent to the Old French espeer (“to cut with a sword”), from espee (“sword”), whence the Modern French épée.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Pets & Pet Care

Practise this word

spay in the wild

  • The male-specific term is castration, while spaying is usually reserved for female animals.

    Neutering

  • Often the term neuter is used to specifically mean castration, e.g. in phrases like "spay and neuter".

    Neutering

  • Since that date, the clinic has provided over 67,000 spay/neuter surgeries.

    United Coalition for Animals

  • NSNRT is a strategic training program designed to assist organizations as they open and operate high-volume, targeted, affordable, spay/neuter clinics across the nation.

    United Coalition for Animals

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.