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spawn - 9 dictionary results

spawn

[spawn] ,
–noun
1. Zoology. the mass of eggs deposited by fishes, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, etc.
2. Mycology. the mycelium of mushrooms, esp. of the species grown for the market.
3. a swarming brood; numerous progeny.
4. (used with a singular or plural verb) any person or thing regarded as the offspring of some stock, idea, etc.
–verb (used without object)
5. to deposit eggs or sperm directly into the water, as fishes.
–verb (used with object)
6. to produce (spawn).
7. to give birth to; give rise to: His sudden disappearance spawned many rumors.
8. to produce in large number.
9. to plant with mycelium.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME spawnen (v.), prob. < AF espaundre (OF espandre) to expand


spawner, noun


7. engender, generate, yield, beget.
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.

Spawn

Spawn\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spawned; p. pr. & vb. n. Spawning.] [OE. spanen, OF. espandre, properly, to shed, spread, L. expandere to spread out. See Expand.]

1. To produce or deposit (eggs), as fishes or frogs do.

2. To bring forth; to generate; -- used in contempt.

One edition [of books] spawneth another. --Fuller.

Spawn

Spawn\, v. i. 1. To deposit eggs, as fish or frogs do.

2. To issue, as offspring; -- used contemptuously.

Spawn

Spawn\, n. [[root]170. See Spawn, v. t.]

1. The ova, or eggs, of fishes, oysters, and other aquatic animals.

2. Any product or offspring; -- used contemptuously.

3. (Hort.) The buds or branches produced from underground stems.

4. (Bot.) The white fibrous matter forming the matrix from which fungi.

Spawn eater (Zo["o]l.), a small American cyprinoid fish (Notropis Hudsonius) allied to the dace.
Language Translation for : spawn
Spanish: huevas,
German: der Laich,
Japanese:

spawn

n.,vi.
1. [techspeak] In UNIX parlance, to create a child process from within a process. Technically this is a `fork'; the term `spawn' is a bit more general and is used for threads (lightweight processes) as well as traditional heavyweight processes.
2. In gaming, meant to indicate where (`spawn-point') and when a player comes to life (or `re-spawns') after being killed. Opposite of frag.

spawn  (v.)
1413, from Anglo-Fr. espaundre, O.Fr. espandre "to spread out, pour out," from L. expandere (see expand). The notion is of a "spreading out" of fish eggs released in water. The meaning "to engender, give rise to" is attested from 1594. The noun is first recorded c.1430; fig. sense of "brood, offspring" is from 1590.
spawn   (spôn)  Pronunciation Key 
Noun  
  1. The eggs of water animals such as fish, amphibians, and mollusks.
  2. Offspring produced in large numbers.

Verb   To lay eggs; produce spawn.

spawn operating system
To create a child process in a multitasking operating system. E.g. Unix's fork system call or one of the spawn() library routines provided by most MS-DOS, Novell NetWare and OS/2 C compilers - spawnl(), spawnle(), etc.
(1995-03-28)

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