Spavin
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 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. countable
"[H]is horſe hip'd vvith an olde mothy ſaddle, and ſtirrops of no kindred: beſides poſſeſt vvith the glanders, and like to moſe in the chine, troubled vvith the Lampaſſe, infected vvith the faſhions, full of VVindegalls, ſped vvith Spauins, raied vvith the Yellovvs, […]"
- 2 The stratum of earth underneath a coal deposit. rare, transitive
- 3 a swelling of the hock joint of a horse; resulting in lameness wordnet
- 4 A disease of horses caused by this bony swelling (etymology 1 sense 1.1). uncountable
"[N]ovv the Bots, the Spauin, and the Glanders, and ſome doſen diſeaſes more, light on him, & his Moyles."
- 5 A similar disease causing a person's leg to be lame. broadly, uncountable
""As an inventor," Bob Mason suggested, "you're a howling success at shooting craps! If I were as free of spavins, ringbone, saddle-galls, and splints as you are, I'd have that nanny-goat in here, hog-tie her, flop her and let the boy help himself. Why monkey with weak imitations when you can come so close to the original.""
- 1 To cause (a horse or its leg) to have spavin (noun etymology 1 sense 1.2). rare, transitive
"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."
- 2 To impair or injure (someone or something). figuratively, rare, transitive
"But Ahab; oh he’s a hard driver. Look, driven one leg to death, and spavined the other for life, and now wears out bone legs by the cord."
Example
More examples"[H]is horſe hip'd vvith an olde mothy ſaddle, and ſtirrops of no kindred: beſides poſſeſt vvith the glanders, and like to moſe in the chine, troubled vvith the Lampaſſe, infected vvith the faſhions, full of VVindegalls, ſped vvith Spauins, raied vvith the Yellovvs, […]"
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English spavein, spaveine (“swelling on horse’s leg causing lameness; disease causing lameness in horses”), from Old French espavain, a variant of esparvain, esprevain, esprevin (modern French éparvin, épervin). The further etymology is unknown; one suggestion is that it is from Frankish *sparwan (“sparrow”), though this is seen as quite tenuous. The verb is derived from the noun.
Origin unknown.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.