shotten
Americanadjective
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(of fish, especially herring) having recently ejected the spawn.
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Obsolete. (of a bone) dislocated.
adjective
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(of fish, esp herring) having recently spawned
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archaic worthless or undesirable
Etymology
Origin of shotten
1175–1225; Middle English, past participle of shoot 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They two bold children shotten together, All day theirself in rank, Until they came to black water, And over it laid a plank.
From Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Fourth Series by Sidgwick, Frank
Our Death will then soon set us where we cannot be reach'd by the Fist of Wickedness; and where the Perfect cannot be shotten at.
From The Wonders of the Invisible World Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England, to which is added A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches by Mather, Cotton
Go thy ways, old Jack; die when thou wilt: if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring.
From McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader by McGuffey, William Holmes
Forth then shotten these children two, And they did never lin, Until they came to merry Churchlees, To merry Churchlees within.
From Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Fourth Series by Sidgwick, Frank
I beleave thee; nay, I am a right Lovell I, I look like a shotten herring now for't.
From A Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 2 by Bullen, A. H. (Arthur Henry)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
