Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
adjective
- (of fish, especially herring) having recently ejected the spawn.
- Obsolete. (of a bone) dislocated.
adjective
- (of fish, esp herring) having recently spawned
- archaic worthless or undesirable
“having shot its spawn,” and accordingly of inferior value, mid-15c., past participle adjective from shoot (v.). Originally of fish; applied to persons, with sense of “exhausted by sickness,” from 1590s.