shotten

American  

[shot-n] / ˈʃɒt n /

adjective

1. (of fish, especially herring) having recently ejected the spawn.

2. Obsolete. (of a bone) dislocated.

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shotten British  

/ ˈʃɒtən /

adjective

1. (of fish, esp herring) having recently spawned

2. archaic worthless or undesirable

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Etymology

Origin of shotten

1175–1225; Middle English, past participle of shoot ¹

Example Sentences

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 The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by Shakespeare, William

After they have let go their roes, they are called shotten mackerel, and are not worth catching; the roe, which was all that was good of them, being gone.

From The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual by Kitchiner, William

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

Now when their father, who was a man shotten in years, saw that his two eldest sons hated their brother, he feared lest after his death trouble should befall him from them.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 06 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir