Standard Lemma guide

spavined

adj · verb · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ˈspævɪnd/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of a horse: having spavin (“a disease of horses caused by a bony swelling which develops in a leg due to inflammation”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, farriery, hobbies, horses, lifestyle, medicine, natural-sciences, pathology, pets, sciences, sports, veterinary, zoology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: spavindy

Antonyms: unspavined

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of a person: lame due to a leg disease.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: halt, halting, limping

Antonyms: unspavined

3

adj

Meaning 3

Of a person or a thing: old, worn-out; also, obsolete.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: figuratively

Examples

  • I’m a spavined old warrior, and I don’t have much time left in this world, but I still have a few tricks to teach these whippersnappers.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

verb

Meaning 4

simple past and past participle of spavin

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: form-of, participle, past

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

(of horses) afflicted with a swelling of the hock-joint

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Late Middle English spaueyned, from spavein, spaveine (“swelling on horse’s leg causing lameness; disease causing lameness in horses”) + -ed (suffix forming adjectives; and the past tense and past participle forms of weak verbs). By surface analysis, spavin + -ed (suffix forming possessional adjectives from nouns, denoting having the objects represented by the nouns; and forming past tenses of regular verbs).

Across languages

Translations

4 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: pattijalkainen — of a horse: having spavin
  • Finnish: pattipolvinen — of a horse: having spavin
  • Scots: spavied — of a horse: having spavin
  • Swedish: spattig — of a horse: having spavin