spawn
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Spawn
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /spɔːn/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /spɔn/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /spɑn/
- (Southern US) IPA(key): /spɑɒn/
- Rhymes: -ɔːn, Rhymes: -ɑn
Etymology 1
Recorded since 1413; from Middle English spawnen, from Anglo-Norman espaundre, from Old French espandre, from Latin expandere (“stretch out; spread out”, verb). Doublet of expand. Compare also Middle English spalden, spolden, spawden (“to cut open (a fish)”).
Verb
spawn (third-person singular simple present spawns, present participle spawning, simple past and past participle spawned)
- (transitive) To produce or deposit (eggs) in water.
- A frog spawns thousands of tadpoles every year.
- (transitive) To generate, bring into being, especially non-mammalian beings in very large numbers.
- (transitive) To bring forth in general.
- The web server spawns a new process to handle each client's request.
- (transitive) To induce (aquatic organisms) to spawn.
- (transitive) To plant with fungal spawn.
- (intransitive) To deposit (numerous) eggs in water.
- 2014 April 20, Richard Conniff, “An evolutionary family drama”, in The New York Times:
- Alewives are anadromous fish: Born in freshwater, they spend their lives in the ocean, returning annually to their birthplaces to spawn.
- (intransitive) To reproduce, especially in large numbers.
- (ergative, video games) To appear, or cause (something or someone) to appear, spontaneously in a game world at a particular place and time.
- Hyponym: respawn
- We put down torches to stop creepers from spawning.
- (ergative, figuratively, Internet slang) To appear, or cause (something or someone) to appear, unexpectedly and seemingly out of nowhere.
- Where did he come from? Bro just spawned in.
- 2022 April 21, @BibsCorner, Twitter, archived from the original on 11 March 2024:
- Mavs fans really be spawning out of nowhere.
- 2022 May 24, @ambarlucid, Twitter, archived from the original on 11 March 2024:
- So many virgos have spawned in my life lately
- 2023 March 10, u/beskardboard, “rule”, in Reddit, r/196, archived from the original on 11 March 2024:
- I swear a new vtuber with 250,000 subscribers and wildly transphobic views just spawns every other fucking week
- 2023 March 22, @pickuplinesonig, Twitter, archived from the original on 11 March 2024:
- rizz so strong the bf just spawned out of nowhere
- 2023 July 9, @upblissed, Twitter, archived from the original on 11 March 2024:
- bro jus spawns in when the word cuck is mentioned
- 2024 March 3, @swagmoneie, Twitter, archived from the original on 11 March 2024:
- God spawning in a new streamer and fans for him every week:
- 2021 December 20, u/Nil4u, “Construction of a building starterpack.”, in Reddit, r/starterpacks, archived from the original on 11 March 2024:
- McDonalds skips the whole process and just spawns a new building somewhere
- (intransitive, figuratively, Internet slang, humorous) Of a person or non-egg-laying animal: to be born.
- That kid just spawned and looks like he's already done with life.
- 2021 April 16, u/crippl3r, “Life, the game!”, in Reddit, r/teenagers, archived from the original on 11 March 2024:
- I spawned in Turkey. I wasn't given an option on difficulty. It was automatically set on the hardest.
- 2023 March 15, u/The-Clumsy-Pirate, “This is OB, short for Orca Beaver for obvious reasons. Children's Tylenol 5ml smol syringe for comparisson.”, in Reddit, r/IllegallySmolCats, archived from the original on 11 March 2024:
- Oh he is entirely too smol! Just spawned and already running a drug ring!! ❤️
- 2024 January 11, @bassantaz, Twitter, archived from the original on 11 March 2024:
- dude literally just spawned and already gave up
Derived terms
Derived terms
Translations
to produce or deposit (eggs) in water
|
to generate, bring into being, especially non-mammalian beings in very large numbers
to bring forth in general
|
to induce (aquatic organisms) to spawn
|
to deposit (numerous) eggs in water
to reproduce, especially in large numbers
|
to appear spontaneously in a game at a certain point and time
|
Etymology 2
From Middle English spawne, from the verb (see above).
Noun
spawn (countable and uncountable, plural spawn or spawns)
- The numerous eggs of an aquatic organism.
- Mushroom mycelium prepared for (aided) propagation.
- Any germ or seed, even a figurative source.
- (often derogatory) Children; offspring.
- This dreadful idea is the spawn of a large business conglomerate.
- 2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- Even the blithely unselfconscious Homer is more than a little freaked out by West’s private reverie, and encourages his spawn to move slowly away without making eye contact with the crazy man.
- (horticulture) The buds or branches produced from underground stems.
- (video games) Synonym of spawn point.
Derived terms
Translations
the numerous eggs of an aquatic organism
|
mushroom mycelium prepared for (aided) propagation
any germ or seed, even a figurative source; offspring
|
Anagrams
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