spavin

American  

[spav-in] / ˈspæv ɪn /

noun

Veterinary Pathology.

1. a disease of the hock joint of horses in which enlargement occurs because of collected fluids bog spavin, bony growth bone spavin, or distention of the veins blood spavin.

2. an excrescence or enlargement so formed.

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spavin British  

/ ˈspævɪn /

noun

1. vet science enlargement of the hock of a horse by a bony growth ( bony spavin ) or fluid accumulation in the joint ( bog spavin ), usually caused by inflammation or injury, and often resulting in lameness

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Etymology

Origin of spavin

1400–50; late Middle English spaveyne < Old French ( e ) spavain, esparvain swelling < ?

Example Sentences

For 19 years he tended the ring bone and spavin of Brooklyn carriage horses, got in with the politically right people.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nothing like having a horse that may develop spavin, ring bone or heaves on the road any min246ute, or a wagon that may drop all four wheels at once and break every spring.

From Dick Hamilton's Fortune The Stirring Doings of a Millionaire's Son by Garis, Howard R.

Darn me coarse! if they can't gi' 'un a blood spavin in a squirt of tobacco!

From Confessions Of Con Cregan An Irish Gil Blas by Lever, Charles James

Es yur spavin not throublin' ye th' day, then?

From The Best Short Stories of 1919 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story by O'Brien, Edward J. (Edward Joseph Harrington)

Why, this horse—if you can call such an animal a dignified name like that—has the heaves, a spavin, spring-halt, blind-staggers, and a few other things.

From Dick Hamilton's Fortune The Stirring Doings of a Millionaire's Son by Garis, Howard R.