ox
(ɒks)
Forms: 1 oxa, 2–7 oxe, 4, 7– ox, (5 hox, 6 oxce), 7– (north. and Sc.) owce, owse. pl. 1 oxan, (œxen, exen), 2– oxen, (3 ocsen, oxene, 4–6 -in, -yn, -yne, 5 -one, exin, exon, 6 oxeson), north. and Sc. 6 oussin, 7– owsen, owssen, ousen. β. 4–6 oxes, (4 -is, 5 -ys).
[Com. Teut.: OE. oxa wk. masc. = OFris. oxa, OS. ohso (MLG., LG. osse, MDu. osse, Du. os), OHG. ohso (MHG. ohse, Ger. ochse), ON. uxe, oxe (Sw., Da. oxe), Goth. auhsa:—OTeut. *ohs-n-:—pre-Teut. *uksén- (found also in Welsh ych, pl. ychyn, Skr. ukshán).
Ox is the only word in general Eng. use which retains the orig. plural -en, OE. -an, of the weak declension. An older umlaut pl. œxen, exen occurs in O.Northumb., whence app. exin, exon in 15th c. A new pl. oxes occurs 14–16th c., but has not survived. The genitive sing. oxes for oxan appears in Lindisf. Gosp. With the northern owse, owssen, cf. Du. and Flem. os, ossen.]
1. The domestic bovine quadruped (sexually distinguished as bull and cow); in common use, applied to the male castrated and used for draught purposes, or reared to serve as food.
Often with a word prefixed indicating breed, use, etc., as Devon ox, domestic ox, draught ox, Herefordshire ox.
| c 825 Vesp. Ps. viii. 8 Scep and oxan..and netenu feldes. c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. John ii. 14 Bebycgendo exen & scipo. Ibid. Luke Pref. lv, Mið bisseno oxes. Ibid. lviii, Asales oððe oxes. a 1000 Riddles xxiii. 13 (Gr.), Swa hine oxa na teah ne esna mæᵹen ne fæt hengest. 1016–20 Charter of Godwine in Thorpe Cod. Dipl. IV. 10 Þrittiᵹ oxna and twentiᵹ cuna, and tyn hors. a 1100 O.E. Chron. an. 1085 An oxe ne an cu ne an swin næs belyfon. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 195 Half hundre ȝiokes of ocsen. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 39/169 Finde ȝe mowen þere Oxene and Bolen. a 1300 Cursor M. 6745 (Cott.) Oxen [v.r. oxin] fiue for an he pai. Ibid. 11272 And þe child..Lai in crib tuix ox and ass. 1375 Barbour Bruce x. 388 [He] has left all his oxyne out. c 1400 Destr. Troy 568 Fro þo proude exin, Þat with flamys of fyre han so furse hete. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 513 For vche yok of exon in thi plough. a 1440 Sir Degrev. 147 Husbondus..He lent hem oxone and wayne Of his owne store. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 757/41 Hic et hec bos, a hox. 1483 Cath. Angl. 49/1 A Buse for a noxe, bocetum. c 1511 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 28/2 Ther bynde they ther oxeson with Arabie gold about ther hornes, and erys. c 1520 Andrew Noble Lyfe i. xiv. C j, A bull lyueth .xv. yere, and a oxce .xx. yere. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 29 margin, Ky Oussin and wylde bullis. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 197 If the bloud be fallen into an Oxens legs, it must be let forth. a 1653 Gouge Comm. Heb. ii. vii. (1655) 131 An oxes eating of the corn. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 647 A herd of Beeves, faire Oxen and faire Kine. 1671 Salmon Syn. Med. iii. lxxxi. 707 Mix with it a little Gall of Oxe. 1683 G. Meriton Yorks. Dial. 67 (E.D.S. No. 76) Ta see me Owse dead at me feet. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v., A Bull-Calf gelt in Time becomes an Ox. 1792 Burns My Ain Kind Dearie O, Owsen frae the field come down. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Ousen, Owsen, oxen. 1870 Bryant Iliad I. ix. 289 Many a slow-paced ox with curving horns They slew. |
| β 1388 Wyclif 1 Kings i. 25 He..offride oxis [1382 oxen] and fatte thingis. ― Ecclus. xxii. 2. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 63 In stede of Oxes He let do yoken grete foxes. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. (E.E.T.S.) 451 Haue my pasture ther with Rude Oxys. 1542 Becon Potation for Lent F, He should restore and gyue hym fyue oxes for an oxe. |
2. Zool. Any beast of the bovine family of ruminants, including the domestic European species, the ‘wild oxen’ preserved in certain parks in Britain, the buffalo, bison, gaur, yak, musk-ox, etc.
With distinctive prefixed word:
American ox, the American bison or buffalo;
Cape ox,
Bos caffer;
Galla ox, the sanga of the Galla country;
grunting ox, the yak;
Indian ox,
Brahmin ox, or
dwarf ox, the Zebu (
B. indicus);
musk ox, a ruminant of arctic America,
Ovibos moschatus.
| c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 118/39 Bubalus, wilde oxa. 1388 Wyclif Deut. xiv. 5 An hert, a capret, a wielde oxe [Vulg. bubalum]. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 53 The name Bos, or an Oxe as we say in English, is the most vulgar and ordinary name for Bugils, Bulls, Cows, Buffes, and all great cloven-footed horned beasts. 1611 Bible Deut. xiv. 5 The Pygarg, and the wilde oxe [Vulg. orygem], and the chamois. 1744 A. Dobbs Hudson's Bay 41 The American Oxen, or Beeves, have a large Bunch upon their Backs. 1785 tr. Buffon's Nat. Hist. VI. 240 The Zebu, or Dwarf Ox. 1816 Brackenridge Jrnl. Voy. Missouri 175 The hump in a large ox, is about a foot in length. 1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 378/2 The small Hindoo ox with a hump on the chine, and the African Cape ox. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §269 None..are so remarkable as the Zebu or Brahmin Ox. Ibid. §271 The Musk-Ox, which is an inhabitant of the coldest regions of North America. 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 119 The gaur, the gayall, and other great wild oxen of India. Ibid. 203 In the forests of Lithuania there yet linger a few herds of another enormous ox..the European bison. |
3. transf. An ancient coin bearing a representation of an ox; also
attrib., as
ox-coin,
ox-unit.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 53 The Cryer is every publick spectacle made proclamation, that he which deserved well, should be rewarded with an Oxe, (meaning a piece of mony having that impress upon it). 1892 I. Taylor in Academy 10 Sept. 220/2 These ox coins to which Pollux refers have been identified with certain silver coins with a bull's head struck in Euboea. Ibid., We must therefore take the value of the ox in Delos at two silver drachmas. Ibid., The theory of a universal ox-unit of 130 grains of gold is..difficult to reconcile with such evidence as we possess. |
4. fig. a. A fool;
esp. in
phr. to make an ox of (any one).
dumb ox: see
dumb a. 7 b.
| 1566 W. Adlington Apuleius 90 He by and by (being made a very oxe) lighted a candle. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. v. v. 126 Fal. I do begin to perceiue that I am made an Asse. Ford. I, and an Oxe too. 1606 ― Tr. & Cr. v. i. 65 Hee is both Asse and Oxe. 1640 H. Mill Night Search 126 At last he findes she made an Oxe of him. 1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry, 'Ands x. 126 You don't see 'em buckin' up, or playin' ther frivolous ox. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 9 Don't you play the giddy ox with me! 1923 Brewer's Dict. Phr. & Fable (new ed.) 809/2 To play the giddy ox, to act the fool generally; to behave in an irresponsible or over-hilarious manner. |
b. the black ox, misfortune, adversity; old age: in proverb,
the black ox has trod on (his, etc.) foot.
| 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 14 The black oxe had not trode on his nor hir foote. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxvi. (1887) 139 Till the blacke oxe tread vpon his toes, and neede make him trie what mettle he is made of. 1591 Lyly Sappho iv. ii, She was a pretie wench,..now crowes foote is on her eye, & the black oxe hath troad on her foote. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew s.v., The black Ox has not trod upon his Foot, of one that has not been Pinch'd with Want, or been Hard put to it. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) I. 344 The common phrase of wild oats, and black oxen, and such-like were qualifiers. 1850 L. Hunt Autobiog. I. iv. 171 The ‘black ox’ trod on the fairy foot of my light-hearted cousin Fan. |
5. attrib. and
Comb. (In some of these the
pl. oxen also occurs.)
a. Appositive, in sense ‘male’ (
cf. bull n.1 9), as
ox-calf,
ox-stirk;
attrib., of or pertaining to an ox or oxen, bovine, as
ox-chain,
ox-dung,
ox-fair,
ox-flesh,
ox-gad,
ox-gut,
ox-hoof,
ox-market,
ox-skin,
ox-team,
ox-track,
ox-train; drawn or worked by an ox or oxen, as
ox-convoy,
ox-mill,
ox-plough,
ox-sawmill,
ox-sled,
ox-transport,
ox-wagon,
ox-wain; for the use, equipment, housing, etc., of an ox or oxen, as
ox-bell,
ox-boose,
ox-close,
ox-common,
ox-goad,
ox-lays,
ox-loom,
ox-pasture,
ox-prod,
ox-rung,
ox-shoe,
ox-whip;
b. objective and
obj. genitive, as
ox-butchering,
ox-driver,
ox-driving,
ox-hunting,
ox-loosing,
ox-roasting,
ox-slayer,
ox-whitening,
ox-worship; instrumental, as
ox-drawn (also
oxen-drawn),
ox-fed adjs.; similative and parasynthetic, as
ox-size;
ox-broad,
ox-faced,
ox-horned,
ox-jawed,
ox-red,
ox-shaped adjs.| 1674 Ray N.C. Words 36 An *Ox-boose: an Ox-stall, or Cow-stall. |
| 1953 Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood (1954) 28 P.C. Attila Rees, *ox-broad, barge-booted, stamping out of Handcuff House in a heavy beef-red huff. |
| a 1849 H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) II. 23 The sheep and *ox-butchering, at which the Homeric heroes are so expert. |
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. cx[i]. (MS. Bodl.) lf. 288/2 The *oxe calfe hatte Vitulus. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §67 It is tyme to gelde his oxen calues in the olde of the mone, whan they be .x. or .xx. dayes olde. c 1830 Glouc. Farm Rep. 17 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, Six ox-calves of the Hereford breed. |
| 1785 G. Washington Diaries (1925) II. 441 [1] *Oxe Chain. 1817 J. K. Paulding Lett. from South I. 128 Next came three men,..chained together with an ox-chain. 1842 [see goose-yoke s.v. goose n. 8]. 1866 Rep. Indian Affairs (U.S.) 292, I also repaired 20 wagons, 15 ox chains, 15 grain cradles. |
| 1546 Yks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees, 91) 113 Parkes, parockes, and the *oxcloses. |
| 1641 in J. Merrill Hist. Amesbury, Mass. (1880) 19 Three hundred acres of upland inclosed for an *ox common. |
| c 1820 S. Rogers Italy, Como 47 Wains *oxen-drawn. 1900 Doyle Boer War i. 9 In their huge ox-drawn waggons..they had vehicles and homes and forts all in one. |
| 1828 A. Royall Black Bk. II. 114 He was one of your right down flat footed *ox-drivers. 1843 Yale Lit. Mag. VIII. 332 ‘Gee Bright!’ shouted the stentorian voice of an ox-driver. 1870 Bryant Iliad I. vi. 188 Beating them with an ox-driver's goad. 1916 G. B. Shaw Androcles & Lion i. 23 The ox driver. The menagerie service is the Emperor's personal retinue. 1937 K. Blixen Out of Africa iv. 269 One strong young animal gave..his Native ox-drivers endless trouble. |
| 1572 L. Mascall Plant. & Graff. (1592) 43 Couer it with *Oxe dunge. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 265/1 An *Oxfayre..locus vbi boues venduntur. |
| 1803 Edin. Rev. II. 132 [Animals] which the *ox-fed rustic never molests. |
| 1836 Knickerbocker VIII. 681 His father kept a long *ox-gad to whip him with. |
| 1611 Bible Judg. iii. 31 Shamgar..which slew..sixe hundred men with an *oxe goad [1535 Coverdale Oxes gadd]. 1843 Knickerbocker XXI. 125 The ladies requested the loan of Mr. Diddlemas's ox-goad to knock down chestnut burrs. 1848 E. Bryant California iii. 32 The crack of the ox-goad, the ‘whoa⁓haws’,..create a most Babel-like and exciting confusion. 1916 G. B. Shaw Androcles & Lion i. 23 A man with an ox goad comes running through the central arch. |
| 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1023 They set in the utmost void places *Ox-hoofs, Hogs-hoofs, or old cast things that are hollow. |
| 1850 Mrs. Browning Prometh. Bound Poems I. 166 Hearest thou what the *ox-horned maiden saith? |
| 1761 Ann. Reg. ii. 3 Their chief employment at first was *ox-hunting. |
| 1602 Breton Wonders worth Hearing (1879) 7/2 Thou olde mangy, fiery faced, bottle nosed, horse lipped, *Ox lawed rascall. |
| 1701 in K. Steuart By Allan Water iii. (1901) 73 Item the caldron and *oxen-looms {pstlg}2. |
| 1837 Wheelwright tr. Aristophanes I. 275 Is it *ox-loosing time, or later? |
| 1634 Brereton Trav. (Chetham) 61, I saw a late erected *ox-market. |
| 1826 T. Flint Recoll. 211 Steam-mills arose in St. Louis, and *ox-mills on the principle of the..tread-mill. 1837 J. M. Peck Gazetteer Illinois (ed. 2) i. 33 Ox mills on the inclined plane and horse mills by draught, are common throughout..the state. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 265/2 An *Oxe pasture, bovarium. 1815 Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. i. 371 Old grass certainly feeds large cattle better. In Northumberland it is the ox pasture. |
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §6 In some places, an *oxe-ploughe is better than a horse-plough. 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 177 The beam..may be made shorter in a two-horse plough, or an ox-plough. |
| 1879 E. Arnold Lt. Asia 10 His slate of *ox-red sandal-wood. |
| 1817 Cobbett Pol. Reg. 8 Feb. 162 After all the *ox-roasting and temple-building in commemoration of that glorious triumph. |
| 1817 in Trans. Illinois State Hist. Soc. 1910 (1912) 150 An inclined Wheel *ox Saw Mill with two saws. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v., An *ox-shoe consists of a flat piece of iron with five or six holes near its outer margin to receive as many flat-headed nails. |
| 1872 Browning Fifine lxxvii, Swell out your frog the right *ox-size. |
| 1809 A. Henry Trav. 265 We were obliged to wrap ourselves..in *ox-skins, which the traders call buffalo-robes. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 265/2 An *Oxe slaer, bovicida. |
| 1842 in Kansas State Hist. Soc. Coll. (1918) XIV. 755, I made also an *oxsled. 1844 Knickerbocker XXIII. 445 Let us ride..home on the ox-sled. 1863 H. S. Randall Pract. Shepherd (ed. 7) xix. 228 The old-fashioned, lively and merry scene of hauling out hay on an ox-sled. 1904 M. E. Waller Wood-Carver of 'Lympus 82 Uncle Shim is driving the ox-sled down the Pent Road. 1882 Fiske in Harper's Mag. Dec. 122/1 There were the ox-cart for summer and the ox-sled for winter. |
| 1550 Knaresborough Wills (Surtees) I. 59 One *oxe stirke of one yere olde. |
| 1573 Tusser Husb. xvii. (1878) 36 For *oxteeme and horseteeme, in plough for to go. 1776 in Huntington (N.Y.) Town Rec. (1889) III. 17 Carting Genll Tryons Baggage from Huntington to Jamaica with an Ox team. 1848 E. Bryant California i. 14 Ox-teams seem to be esteemed as preferable. 1913 J. London Valley of Moon 297 The chest of drawers..had crossed the Atlantic by sailing ship and the Plains by ox-team. 1974 M. Fido R. Kipling 77/1 Hiring labourers and ox-teams. |
| 1849 in E. Page Wagons West (1930) 120 We will now push off for good and any *ox train that gets ahead of us will have to travele. 1850 L. H. Garrard Wah-to-Yah 72 Overtaking a United States ox-train, with which I traveled and stayed all night. 1869 Bradshaw's Railway Manual XXI. 433 Four years ago the only way of traversing these 1,721 miles between the Missouri and the Pacific was by mail coaches, or by mule or ox trains. 1887 E. Custer Tenting on Plains 357 There is no picture that represents the weariness and laggard progress of life like an ox-train. 1968 E. McCourt Saskatchewan x. 112 Some settlers arrived..by ox train and Red River cart. |
| 1831 J. M. Peck Guide for Emigrants ii. 135 From twelve to fifteen large *ox waggons are employed..in hauling it [sc. coal] to market. 1857 D. E. E. Braman Information Texas iii. 56 The ox-wagons, the ‘peculiar institution’ of this country, are hauling away cotton. 1878 T. J. Lucas Camp Life & Sport S. Afr. iii. 42 The Cape ox-waggon is quite an institution, and has been called, like the camel, the ‘ship of the plains’. 1895 Catholic Mag. Aug. 200 It was put into an ox-waggon. 1946 E. O'Neill Iceman Cometh (1947) i. 44, I vas so tough and strong I grab axle of ox wagon mit full load. 1960 [see backveld]. 1971 Sunday Express (Johannesburg) 28 Mar. 11/1 Students to whom I spoke described the move as ‘archaic and back to the ox-wagon’. |
| 1820 H. Matthews Diary of Invalid (ed. 2) 18 Abundance of *ox-wains. |
| 1831 J. Macqueen in Blackw. Mag. Nov. 752/2 With a good rattan or Mauritius *ox whip. |
| 1650 Fuller Pisgah iv. vii. 129 Others..conceive *Oxe-worship in Egypt of far greater antiquity. |
6. a. Special comb.:
ox-antelope, a bovine antelope; in the Revised Version (
Num. xxiii. 22) a marginal reading for ‘wild ox’, rendering
Heb. r'êm (‘unicorn’ in 1611), identified as
Bos primigenius;
oxback, in
phr. on oxback, sitting or riding on an ox;
ox-ball: see
quot.;
ox-beef, the flesh of the ox used as food;
ox-bile = ox-gall;
ox-biter, a bird: (
a)
= ox-pecker,
q.v.; (
b)
U.S. the cow-bird,
Molobrus ater or
M. pecoris;
ox-bot, the larva of the gad-fly, infesting the skin of cattle;
ox-bot fly, the fly producing this larva;
ox-boy, a boy who tends oxen; a cowboy;
ox-brake: see
quot.;
ox-chip, a piece of dry ox-dung;
ox-coin (see 3 above);
† oxen and kine (also
kye), a local name of some sea-fowl, as the ruff,
Machetes pugnax, or the dunlin,
Tringa alpina;
ox-feather (
humorous), the ‘horn’, as the symbol of cuckoldry:
cf. bull's feather (
bull 11 b);
ox-feller (
jocular), a butcher;
ox-fence, a strong fence to confine cattle;
spec. one consisting of a hedge with a stout railing on one side, and (often) a ditch on the other; hence
ox-fenced adj.;
ox-fish, a S. American sea-fish;
ox-fly,
ox gad-fly, the gad-fly or bot-fly,
Œstrus bovis;
ox-foot, (
a) the foot of an ox,
esp. as used to make
ox-foot jelly; (
b) (see
quot. 1730–6);
ox-frame, a frame for holding oxen while they are being shod; also
ox-shoeing frame;
ox-gall, the gall of the ox, used for cleansing purposes, also in painting and pharmacy; so
ox-gall-stone;
ox-god, Apis, the sacred bull of the Egyptians;
† ox-grass (
ox-girse), pasturage for an ox;
ox-heart a., heart-shaped and of unusual size; applied
esp. to a variety of cherry; also as
n.;
† ox-hunger, the disease Bulimy or Dog-hunger;
oxland = oxgang; also, plough-land;
oxman, a man who looks after oxen, a herdsman;
ox-money, a tax levied on oxen;
ox-noble, a variety of potato;
ox-pecker, the genus
Buphaga of African birds, feeding on the parasitic larvæ that infest the hide of cattle (Craig 1848); also called
beef-eater;
ox-penny = ox-money;
† ox-pith, the marrow of the ox's bones;
ox-rail = ox-fence;
ox-ray, a fish, the large horned ray,
Cephaloptera giorna (Cuvier);
ox-rein: see
quot.;
ox-runner, a kind of runner for a sleigh;
ox-sole (
Irish), the whiff, a flat fish;
ox-spavin: see
quot.;
ox-stone, a name for jade;
ox-vomit, corruption of
nux vomica (
dial.);
ox-warble, (
a) the tumour or swelling in the back of an ox caused by the ox-fly; (
b) the gad-fly producing this;
oxyard, a measure of land (?
= oxland); also, a yard where oxen are kept. See also oxbane, -bow, -cheek, -eye, -gang,
-gate, -harrow, etc.
| 1857 Livingstone Trav. iv. 75 That I might be able to visit Sebituane on *ox-back. |
| 1851 Sternberg Dial. Northampt. (E.D.D.), *Ox-ball, a round, hairy ball often found in the stomach of an ox. |
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 197 Bot... Your name I beseech you sir? Mus. Mustard-seede... Bot... That same cowardly gyant-like *Oxe-beefe hath deuoured many a gentleman of your house. 1878 Amer. Home Cook Bk. 5 Ox-beef, when it is young, will have a fine open grain, and a good red colour. |
| 1819 Brande Man. Chem. 440 *Ox-bile..this secretion [etc.]. 1826 Henry Elem. Chem. II. 438 When submitted to heat, ox-bile..deposits a portion of coagulated matter. |
| 1885 J. Coryell in Harper's Mag. Feb. 420/1 The red-beaked *ox-biters (Buphaga erythrorhynca), more popularly known as rhinoceros-birds. |
| 1841 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) XXI. 627 The *Ox-bot, Œstrus bovis,..is a cuticular insect, the eggs being deposited externally in the skin of cattle. |
| 1862 T. W. Harris Insects injur. Vegetation vii. (ed. 3) 624 The maggots..of the Œstrus bovis, or *ox bot-fly, live in large open boils..on the backs of cattle. |
| 1573 Tusser Husb. lxiii. (1878) 143 The *oxboy as ill is as hee, Or worser, if worse may be found. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Ox-brake. The ox-brake resembles that used for shoeing refractory horses. |
| 1857 E. Bandel Frontier Life in Army (1932) 178 No timber to be seen yet, and our wood is gone. We must get along on what few buffalo or *ox chips we can gather. 1857 W. Chandless Visit to Salt Lake i. vii. 122 Some one pitched on an old camping-place studded with ‘ox-chips’. |
| 1602 Carew Cornwall 35 Amongst the first sort, we reckon the..Sea-larkes, *Oxen and Kine, Scapies, Puffins, Pewets. 1623 Whitbourne Newfoundland 8 There are also Godwits, Curlewes, and a certaine kinde of fowle that are called Oxen and Kine. 1894 Newton Dict. Birds 680 The Dunlin..in connexion therewith Mr. Harting..reasonably refers Oxen-and-kine, by which name some apparently small wildfowl were of old times known in the west country. |
| 1615 Swetnam Arraignm. Wom. (1880) p. xxv, She will make thee weare an *Oxe feather in thy cap. |
| 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 281 He stands aloof..when grave doctors shake hands with *ox-fellers. |
| 1829 Sporting Mag. XXIII. 372 Many *ox-fences and two rasping brooks. 1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. ii. iii. §3. 160 Horses and men make light of ox-fences, brooks, or gates in the first frenzy of their charges. |
| 1852 Fraser's Mag. XLV. 539 The *ox-fenced pastures of Leicestershire. |
| a 1642 Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts vi. (1704) 534/1 The *Ox-Fish,..esteem'd above all Fishes;..it eats..like Beef. |
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 391 The little grubs or worms whereof come the *oxe-flies. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. (1861) 225 Victory, in the likeness of a gigantic ox-fly, sat perched upon the cocked hat of the gallant Stuyvesant. |
| 1730–36 Bailey (folio), *Oxfeet (in Horses) is said of a horse when the horn of the hind-feet cleaves just in the middle of the fore-part of the hoof from the coronet to the shoe. |
| 1887 I. R. Lady's Ranche Life Montana 29 My next venture was pancakes; and the crowning success, *ox-foot jelly. |
| 1844 Knickerbocker XXIII. 155 A little slab-roofed smithy... An *ox-frame standing by the door, and at one side a shed. 1890 N. P. Langford Vigilante Days I. xxvi. 384 We sat down upon the ox-shoeing frame, and talked over the whole matter. |
| 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 304 The *ox gad-fly. |
| 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 98 Take *ox-gall..and some water; mix together and with it rub your gold or silver. 1816 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 766 This ink will easily mark the transparent paper, if mixed with a little ox-gall. |
| 1863–72 Watts Dict. Chem. I. 588 *Ox gall-stones consist mainly of cholochrome, cholic acid, and choloidic acid, with small portions of cholesterin. |
| 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 663 All adored this *Oxe-god. |
| 1568 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1835) 297, I giue vnto my seruant Will{supm} Sparrow an *oxe girse [= grass] yerelye in the Millfielde. |
| 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 335 *Ox-heart yellow [turnip]. 1870 Lowell Cathedral Poet. Wks. (1879) 442 And pulled the pulpy ox⁓hearts. 1884 Roe Nat. Ser. Story ix, The moist sultriness..finished the ox-heart cherries. |
| 1623 Bingham Xenophon 79 One, who had experience, told him, that it was a plaine *Oxe-hunger, and that they would immediatly stand vp, if they had any thing to eat. |
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 97 Danegeld..þat was þre pans of eueriche bouata terræ, þat is, of eueriche *oxeland. 1603 Owen Pembrokeshire (1892) 135, viij acres make an Oxelande..viij oxelandes make a ploweland..x plowlands make a knightes ffee. 1663 in S. L. Bailey Hist. Sk. Andover, Mass. (1880) 13 All those my two parcells of oxland or ploughing ground on the westerly side of ye Shawshin river. |
| c 1830 Glouc. Farm Rep. 19 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, Three *ox-men to work the oxen. |
| 1616 Manch. Crt. Leet Rec. (1885) II. 333 Paide to Mr. Houlte..*oxe money for his masters provision of howsehould. 1822 Hibbert Descr. Shetl. Isles 321 All landholders..pay the ox and sheep money... The average of scat, wattle, and ox money, is said to be about 8d. sterling. |
| 1799 A. Young Agric. Surv. Linc. 145 Kidneys do not take from the soil so much as *ox-nobles. |
| 1793 Statist. Acc. Scot. VII. 583 The parish also pays to Sir Thomas Dundas, the superior, for scatt, wattle, and *ox-penny. 1822 Hibbert Descr. Shetl. Isles (1891) 68 (E.D.D.). |
| 1604 Marston Malcontent ii. ii, Distild *oxe-pith [cf. 1614 J. Taylor Sculler Ep. xxxii, Pith that grows i' the ox's chine]. |
| 1844 Alb. Smith Adv. Mr. Ledbury (1856) I. xx. 155 The embankment..beyond the *ox-rails. |
| 1860–5 Couch Brit. Fishes, *Ox Ray, horned Ray. |
| 1858 Simmonds Trade Dict., *Ox-reims, narrow strips of prepared hide, about 9 feet long, extensively used in the Cape colony for halters for horses, for passing round the horns, close to the head, of draught oxen, to keep them together. |
| 1835 C. F. Hoffman Winter in West I. 295 Our sleigh [was] a low clumsy pine box on a pair of *ox-runners. |
| 1727–41 Chambers Cyclopædia s.v. Spavin, *Ox-Spavin, which is a callous tumour, at the bottom of the ham, on the inside; hard as a bone, and very painful. |
| 1877 F. G. Lee Gloss. Liturg. Terms 167 Jade, a mineral of a greenish colour; sometimes termed ‘*ox-stone’. |
| 1772 T. Simpson Vermin-Killer 2 Mix up a little flour with honey, and a little *ox-vomit till it comes to a paste. |
| 1887 Daily News 3 May 3/6 Miss Ormerod has issued another warning on the subject of *ox-warble, a pest that is doubly injurious, for the warble maggots..by the holes they leave in the hides, lessen the value of the latter to the tanner. |
| 1885 W. Morris in Commonweal I. 12/1 The straw from the *ox-yard is blowing about. 1897 Mem. of Tennyson I. i. 1 To Margaret his wife he devises one ox-yard of land. 1910 J. Masefield Ballads & Poems 42 The red cock in the ox-yard crows. |
b. In names of plants (in some of which
ox-, like ‘horse-’ in similar use, denotes a coarse or large species, or means ‘eaten by’ or ‘fit for oxen’):
ox-balm, the N. American plant,
Collinsonia canadensis; also called horse-balm (Miller
Plant-n. 1884);
ox-berry, (
a) the Black Bryony or Lady's Seal,
Tamus communis; (
b) the fruit of the Wake-Robin,
Arum maculatum;
ox-daisy = ox-eye daisy;
ox-heal or
-heel, Bear's-foot or Fetid Hellebore,
Helleborus fœtidus;
ox-hoof: see
quot.;
ox-mushroom, a name for very large specimens of the common mushroom (
Cent. Dict.).
| 1854 Trans. Michigan Agric. Soc. V. 130 The plants were very numerous, among which were *oxbalm..and marsh grass. 1931 W. N. Clute Common Names of Plants 97 The ox-balm (Collinsonia) is merely a larger balm. |
| 1859 E. Capern Ball. & Songs 168 Rich as the cornelian, with its ruby sheen, Is the *ox-berry wreath round the bramble seen. 1882 W. Worc. Gloss., Oxberry, the berry of the Arum maculatum. The juice is used as a remedy for warts. |
| 1819 Pantologia, *Ox daisy, in botany... Chrysanthemum. |
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. ccclxi. 825 The fourth kinde of Blacke Hellebor, called..in English *Oxeheele, or Setterwoort. 1776–96 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 511 Bears⁓foot, Setterwort, Oxheel, Stinking Hellebore. |
| 1846 Lindley Veg. Kingd. 550 The leaves of Caulotretus..and various Bauhinias are used in Brazil under the name of Unha de Boy, or *Oxhoof, as mucilaginous remedies. |