Spavin

Quick meaning: Spavin is a noun meaning A disease of horses caused by this bony swelling (etymology 1, noun sense 1.1).

Meaning

A disease of horses caused by this bony swelling (etymology 1, noun sense 1.1).

More Meanings

1. (by extension, uncountable) A similar disease causing a person's leg to be lame.
2. (farriery, veterinary medicine) To cause (a horse or its leg) to have spavin (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1.2).
3. (figurative) To impair or injure (someone or something).
4. (mining) The stratum of earth underneath a coal deposit.
5. A bony swelling which develops in a horse's leg where the shank and splint bone meet, caused by inflammation of the cartilage connecting those bones; also, a similar swelling caused by inflammation of the hock bones.

Example Sentences

[N]ovv the Bots, the Spauin, and the Glanders, and ſome doſen diſeaſes more, light on him, & his Moyles.

Mr. Field had seen the same horses brought to his forge from day to day, and year to year, with large spavins, yet continuing perfectly sound.

The witches that dance on the Brocken on Valpurgis Eve would be spoken of in a different spirit from the village hag who spavins the horse and curdles the milk.

Mr. Lythe had seen many horses which Mr. Field had passed as sound although they were spavined; and he does not recollect a single instance of lameness among them.

Word Forms

• spavins
• spavining
• spavined

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include lame, unfit, bog, spinitis, splayleg, spondarthritis.

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