spay
/speɪ/
spay verb: to destroy or remove the ovaries or uterus (of a female animal) to prevent pregnancy. Also the rare form of spayard.
Verb
spay (third-person singular simple present spays, present participle spaying, simple past and past participle spayed or (obsolete) spade)
- To destroy or remove the ovaries or uterus (of a female animal) to prevent pregnancy.
- We’re having our cat spayed as we don’t want her having kittens.
- With their eye on non-island countries, namely America, the authors of Cat Wars argue for a combination of spay/neuter programs, enclosed sanctuaries, and euthanasia.2016 November 13, Britt Peterson, “The Case Against Cats”, in The Atlantic
Noun
spay (plural spays)
- The act of spaying an animal.
- I was queasy about my first spay of a far-gone feral and left it up to my vet.1997 July 28, Sharon Talbert, “spay/abortion of pregnant cats”, in rec.pets.cat.rescue (Usenet)
Also used as
spay is also the rare form of spayard.
spay is also the alternative form of spae.
Synonyms of spay
Forms of spay
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | spays |
| present participle | spaying |
| past participle | spayed |
| past | spayed |
| alternative form | spaie |
| alternative form | spaye |
| alternative form | spey |
| past participle (obsolete) | spade |
| past (obsolete) | spade |
| alternative form (archaic) | spave |
| Noun | |
| plural | spays |
Origin of spay
From Middle English spayen, spaien, from the Anglo-Norman espeier, equivalent to the Old French espeer (“to cut with a sword”), from espee (“sword”), whence the Modern French épée.
See spayard.
Words formed from spay
Words that rhyme with spay
Questions about spay
- What does spay mean?
- Spay means to destroy or remove the ovaries or uterus (of a female animal) to prevent pregnancy.
- What part of speech is spay?
- Spay can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce spay?
- Spay is pronounced /speɪ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of spay?
- The past tense of spay is spayed.
Words near spay in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spay (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spay.wav.
Cite this entry: “spay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.