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spae

American  
[spey] / 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:

Well, Miriam, you used to spae fortunes for a living.

From The Unseen Bridgegroom or, Wedded For a Week by May Agnes Fleming

Dinna spae ill-fortune!" said the baker, "dinna spae ill-fortune!

From The House with the Green Shutters by George Douglas Brown

Thy mother's gone abroad to spae, Her kindly milk thou shalt enjoy When home she comes at close of day.

From Romano Lavo-Lil: word book of the Romany; or, English Gypsy language by George Henry Borrow

I daur you try sic sportin’, As seek the foul Thief onie place, For him to spae your fortune: Nae doubt but ye may get a sight!

From The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham by Robert Burns

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

From A Reconstructed Marriage by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

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

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

From The Songs of Ranild by Thomas James Wise

“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 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

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

From The Path of the King by John Buchan

"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

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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