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Definition of spay verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

spay

verb
 
/speɪ/
 
/speɪ/
(specialist)
Verb Forms
present simple I / you / we / they spay
 
/speɪ/
 
/speɪ/
he / she / it spays
 
/speɪz/
 
/speɪz/
past simple spayed
 
/speɪd/
 
/speɪd/
past participle spayed
 
/speɪd/
 
/speɪd/
-ing form spaying
 
/ˈspeɪɪŋ/
 
/ˈspeɪɪŋ/
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  1. spay something to remove the ovaries of a female animal, to prevent it from producing young
    • Have you had your cat spayed?
    Topics Animalsc2
    Oxford Collocations DictionarySpay is used with these nouns as the object:
    • cat
    • dog
    See full entry
    Word Originlate Middle English: shortening of Old French espeer ‘cut with a sword’, from espee ‘sword’, from Latin spatha, from Greek spathē ‘broad blade’.
See spay in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
previously
adverb
 
 
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