| spawn (spôn)
n.
1. The eggs of aquatic animals such as bivalve mollusks, fishes, and amphibians.
2. Offspring occurring in numbers; brood.
3. A person who is the issue of a parent or family.
4. The source of something; a germ or seed.
5. A product or an outcome.
6. Mycelia of mushrooms or other fungi grown in specially prepared organic matter for planting in beds.
v. spawned, spawn·ing, spawns
v.intr.
1. To deposit eggs; produce spawn.
2. To produce offspring in large numbers.
v.tr.
1. To produce or deposit (spawn).
2. To produce in large numbers.
3. To give rise to; engender: tyranny that spawned revolt.
4. To cause to spawn; bring forth; produce: a family that had spawned a monster.
5. To plant with mycelia grown in specially prepared organic matter.
[Middle English spawne, from spawnen, to spawn, from Anglo-Norman espaundre, from Latin expandere; see expand.]
spawn
 er n. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
