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spae

American  
[spay] / speɪ /

verb (used with object)

Chiefly Scot.
spaed, spaeing
  1. to prophesy; foretell; predict.


spae British  
/ speɪ /

verb

  1. to foretell (the future)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of spae

1250–1300; Middle English span < Old Norse spā


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.

See Examples For:

She continued to twirl her distaff, seemingly unconscious of his presence, and also, after her own fashion, to "spae" the fortune of young Harry Bertram, just as Mannering had so lately been doing himself.

From Red Cap Tales Stolen from the Treasure Chest of the Wizard of the North by Sir Walter Scott

"Ay, but, Meg, we shall not want your assistance, for here's a student from Oxford that kens much better than you how to spae its fortune—he does it by the stars."

From Guy Mannering by Sir Walter Scott

I'm now an auld man, and may be removed before the woes come to pass; but it requires not the e'e of prophecy to spae bloodshed and suffering, and many afflictions in your fortunes.

From Ringan Gilhaize or The Covenanters by John Galt

Mother! mother! do not spae sorrow to your own child.

From A Reconstructed Marriage by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

She has keeked in the glass at Hallow-een A better chance to spae.

From New Collected Rhymes by Andrew Lang

The death of woe, spaed long ago,    They’ll wreak on him now, I reckon.

From The Songs of Ranild by Thomas James Wise

I see a heron from the marsh go sailing in the sky, The purple moor is like a dream, a star is twinkling clear— Perhaps the meeting that she spaed is drawing very near!

From Old Spookses' Pass, Malcolm's Katie, and other poems by Isabella Valancy Crawford

“When I was but a little child,    To me ’twas spaed that a knight should come From foreign land, should Allevod slay,    And to England’s realm should bear me home. p.

From Ermeline a ballad by George Henry Borrow

It was common for coy damsels and staid matrons to wend their way to Lizzie's cot about twilight, to have their fortunes spaed.

From The Mysteries of All Nations Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together With Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales by James Grant

I know the old wife spaed me true, for did she not fore-tell I'd break a ring with Ronald Grey beside the Hidden Well?

From Old Spookses' Pass, Malcolm's Katie, and other poems by Isabella Valancy Crawford

"I think nae mair on't, man—sir, I mean, for ye proved yoursel' a gentleman to me afore—than I do now in spaeing twins to your wife at her next doun-lying."

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 21 by Alexander Leighton

For the first time he spoke of the weird-wife's spaeing.

From The Path of the King by John Buchan

Olaf fell a-longing to test the spaeing of this man.

From Olaf the Glorious A Story of the Viking Age by Robert Leighton

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