horn

▪ I. horn, n.
    (hɔːn)
    Forms: 1– horn; also 3 heorn, 5 horun, 4–7 horne.
    [Com. Teut.: OE. horn masc. = OFris., OS. horn masc., OHG., ON. horn neut., Goth. haurn neut.:—OTeut. *horno-, cognate with L. cornu, Celtic corn ‘horn’: in ablaut relation with Gr. κέρ-ας, κερ-ατ-; cf. also Skr. {cced}ṛṅ-ga ‘horn’.]
    I. As an animal organ or appendage.
    1. a. A non-deciduous excrescence, often curved and pointed, consisting of an epidermal sheath growing about a bony core, on the head of certain mammals, as cattle, sheep, goats, antelopes, etc., and serving as a weapon of offence or defence.
    (True horns are common to male and female animals. They are usually produced in pairs, a right and a left; sometimes in two, or (in some extinct animals) even in three pairs. Horns also occur singly, or one in front of the other, as in species of rhinoceros.)

c 1000 ælfric Gen. xxii. 13 Anne ramm betwux þam bremelum be þam hornum ᵹehæft. a 1225 St. Marher. 7 Leose..mi meoke mildschipe af þe anhurnde hornes. c 1300 Havelok 700 Shep wit wolle, neth wit horn. 1382 Wyclif Rev. xiii. 1 A beest..hauynge seuen heedes and ten hornes. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 247/1 Horne, cornu. 1596 Spenser F.Q. vi. vii. 47 A salvage Bull, whose cruell hornes doe threat Desperate daunger. 1626 Bacon Sylva §753 No Beast that hath Hornes hath vpper Teeth. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 287 The elephant is often found dead in the forests, pierced with the horn of a rhinoceros. 1854 Owen Skel. & Teeth in Circ. Sc., Organ. Nat. I. 239 The term ‘horn’ is technically restricted to the weapon which is composed of a bony base, covered by a sheath of true horny matter. Such horns are never shed. Ibid. 240 The horn of the rhinoceros consists wholly of fibrous horny matter.

    b. fig.

a 1659 Osborn Char. etc. Wks. (1673) 632 Were You thrown upon it, by the Iron Horns of an unavoidable Compulsion. 1827 Pollok Course T. v, The Church, Who with a double horn the people pushed.

    c. That borne by the Ram (Aries) and Bull (Taurus) as figured among the constellations and zodiacal signs; the stars situated in those parts of the constellations; † also the constellation Ursa Minor [cf. It. il Carro e'l Corno the Wain and the Horn].

1390 Gower Conf. III. 119 This bulle is eke with sterres set, Through which he hath his hornes knet. 1513 Douglas æneis viii. Prol. 154 The son, the sevin sternis, and the Charll wane..The horne and the hand staff, Prater John and Port Jaff. a 1605 Montgomerie Flyting w. Polwart 419 Be the hornes, the handstaff, and the king's ell. 1726 tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 370 Copernicus and others..reckon the distance of the Fix'd Stars in the Ecliptic towards the East, from the preceding of the two in the Horn of Aries.

    d. Put for ‘horned animal’. Cf. shorthorn.

1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. i. 113 My Lady goes to kill hornes. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 87 This property is almost peculiar to the improved short horn. 1890 L. D'Oyle Notches 85 They at last headed the drifting ‘horns’.

    2. Phrases and proverbs. † a. horn and corn: used symbolically for cattle and provisions in general. b. neither horn nor hoof: not a trace or vestige. c. horn with horn: see quots. d. all horn and hide: nothing but skin and bone. e. in a horn (slang): ‘a general qualification implying refusal or disbelief; over the left’ (Farmer). [Cf. It. un corno as a negative.] f. to be squeezed through a horn, to come out at the little end of the horn: to come off badly in an affair, esp. to fail conspicuously in a great or pretentious undertaking. g. Other phrases of obvious meaning. Also to take the bull by the horns, etc.: see bull n.¹ 7 c; to carry hay in one's horn: see hay n.¹ 3.

a. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. iii. xv. 357 Their Troupes left neither Corne nor horne, nor house unburnt, betweene Kinsale and Rosse. 1819 Sporting Mag. IV. 274 Horn and corn were both up at a pretty vitty price.

b. 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. 548 There is not any one horn or hoof of Anti⁓christianism left in our Church.

c. 1276 Const. Rob. Dunelm. in Spelman Gloss. (1626) s.v., Licet in vicinis parochijs, Horne with horne, secundum Anglicam linguam pascua quærant. 1490 in Trans. Durh. Archæol. Soc. IV. 294 He saith that all way the Priours bestes and the tenantes bestes went all, horne with horne. 1809 Tomlins Law Dict. s.v., The commoning of cattle horn with horn, was properly when the inhabitants of several parishes let their common herds run upon the same open spacious common.

d. 1890 Boldrewood Col. Reformer (1891) 219 The cattle were..mostly old savage devils, all horn and hide.

e. 1847–78 Halliwell s.v., In a horn when the devil is blind, spoken ironically of a thing never likely to happen. Devon. 1858 Washington Even. Star 26 Aug. (Bartlett), I have mentioned before the innumerable comforts—in a horn—of the old White Sulphur Springs.

f. 1605 Chapman, etc. Eastw. Ho i. i, You all know the deuise of the Horne, where the young fellow slippes in at the Butte end, and comes squesd out at the Buckall. 1624 Fletcher Wife for Month iii. iii, The prodigal fool..That was squeezed through a horn. 1847 Porter Big Ben etc. 37 (Farmer) How did you make it? You didn't come out at the little end of the horn, did you?

g. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 358 To geue God thankes y{supt} sent shrewed cowes short hornes. a 1640 Day Peregr. Schol. (1881) 43 A Butcher..sweares by the horne and the hoofe (a poor othe, yet proper enough to the trade). 1660 Howell Prov. 16 You will make a horn as soon of an Ape's tail. 1869 Hazlitt Eng. Prov. 208 Horns and grey hairs do not come by years.

    3. a. Each of the two branched appendages on the head of a deer.
    (These differ from a true horn in being osseous, deciduous, and (usually) borne only by the male.)

Beowulf (Z.) 1370 Heorot hornum trum. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 334 Wiþ heafod sare, heortes hornes axan..drinc. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 393/19 Ane heort..Bi-twene is hornes he i-saiȝh ane croiz schine briȝhte. c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 463 Ther saugh he hertes with hir hornes hye. 1486 Bk. St. Albans E j b, The hornys that he then berith a bowte. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 98 Every year in the month of April, they [harts] loose their horns..Their new horns come forth like bunches at the first. 1870 D. P. Blaine Encycl. Rur. Sports (ed. 3) §1797 April is the most usual month for the shedding of the horns of the older deer.

    b. Each of the erect and permanent bony processes, covered with hairy skin, growing on the head of a giraffe; also applied to a smaller protuberance in front of the other two.

[1598 implied by quot. s.v. giraffe 1.] 1753 Chamber's Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Zurnapa, Its head is wholly of the make of the stag's, but differs in size, and has two little obtuse horns, which are not more than six fingers breadth long, and are hairy. 1840 tr. Cuvier's Anim. Kingdom 138 The Giraffe..is characterized by conical horns in both sexes, that are always covered with a hairy skin, and never fall... In the middle of the forehead, there is an eminence or third horn, broader and much shorter, but equally articulated by suture. 1879 Encycl. Brit. X. 619/2 In captivity it [sc. the giraffe] is said to make use of its skin-covered horns as weapons of defence. 1965 D. Morris Mammals 393 The Giraffe is easily the tallest of all the mammals... Both sexes have short, hair-covered horns.

    4. † The tusk of an elephant (obs.); the tusk of a narwhal.

1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 165 That there was nothing in an Elephant good for meat, except the trunck, the lips, and the marrow of his horns, or teeth. 1611 Bible Ezek. xxvii. 15 They brought thee for a present, hornes of Iuorie, and Ebenie. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 739 They found a great dead Fish..twelve foote long, having a Horne of two yardes..growing out of the Snout, wreathed and straight, like a Wax Taper. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §212 The Monodon, or Narwhal, commonly known as the Sea Unicorn..has been known to drive its horn, or rather tusk, deep into the thick oak timbers of a ship.

    5. a. A projection or process on the head of other animals: e.g. the excrescence on the beak of the hornbill, the antennæ or feelers of insects and crustaceans, the tentacles of gastropods, esp. of the snail and slug; also, loosely, a crest of feathers, a plumicorn, as in the horned owl, etc. Also jocularly, the human nose (slang).

1340 Ayenb. 32 [He] þet ne dar naȝt guo ine þe peþe uor þane snegge þet sseaweþ him his hornes. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. i. (Bodl. MS.), Snailes haue certayne hornes nasche and gleymyer, but þei beþ nouȝt proprelich hornes but þinges ȝeue to snailes for helpe and socoure. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 338 The tender hornes of Cockled Snayles. 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 63 Flyes..(from two inches long with the great horns, which we keep in boxes, and are shewed by John Tredescan amongst his rarities). 1665 Hooke Microgr. 194 Resembling the long horns of Lobsters. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 236 It [the Hornbill] has a kind of horn standing out from the top, which looks somewhat like a second bill. 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales II. 47 The beetle being somewhat restless, they pinioned down his horns..to the ground. 1893 Farmer & Henley Slang III. 351/1 Horn, the nose. 1935 Ersine Underworld & Prison Slang 45 Horn, a man's nose, bugle. 1945 L. Shelly Jive Talk Dict. 12/2 Horn, the nose.

    b. to draw in († shrink, pluck, pull in) one's horns: to restrain one's ardour; to repress one's pride; to lower one's pretensions: in allusion to the snail's habit of drawing in its retractile tentacles (which bear the eyes), when disturbed. Also, to restrict one's expenditure, esp. of money.

13.. Coer de L. 3835 They..gunne to drawen in her hornes, As a snayl among the thornes. 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas i. xx. (Bodl. MS.) lf. 83/1 Who is knowe ontrewe..Shrynkith his hornis whan men speake of falsheede. c 1566 J. Alday tr. Boaystuau's Theat. World N iv b, As soone as man thinketh to spread out his horns, or rise against his god. 1589 Hay any Work 38 Mark how I haue made the bishops to pull in their hornes. 1678 Wood Life (O.H.S.) II. 414 When the parliament was prorogued he plucked in his horne. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1883) I. 115 So I began to pull in my horns, as they say. 1824 Examiner 434/1 We are to creep into our shells and draw in our horns. 1891 Sat. Rev. 19 Dec. 682/2 They are imploring the Council to draw in its horns. 1920 Galsworthy In Chancery i. i. 7 In the meantime, no more children! Even young Nicholas was drawing in his horns, and had made no addition to his six for quite three years. 1941 A. L. Rowse Tudor Cornwall xiv. 363 His will was a very cautious affair: he had to draw in his horns. 1957 I. Murdoch Sandcastle i. 16 If we don't get some extra money from somewhere we shall have to draw our horns in pretty sharply. No more Continental holidays, you know.

    c. An erect penis; an erection. Also in phr. to have (get) the horn, to be sexually excited. (Not in polite use.)

1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar T., Horn Cholick, a temporary priapism. 1879–80 Pearl (1970) 257 A man with light trousers, of decency shorn, Stop and talk to young ladies while having the horn. 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang I. 475/2 ‘To have the horn’, to be in a state of sexual desire. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 263 Got the horn or what? he said. 1968 J. R. Ackerley My Father & Myself xiii. 148 He remarked to me then with a chuckle that the thing that had worried him most was that he might not be able to ‘get the horn’ again. 1968 L. Berg Risinghill 121 ‘Why does a boy get the {oqq}horn{cqq}?’ ‘The {oqq}horn{cqq} or the erection of the penis is necessary to make sure that the sperm is placed well inside the body of the woman.’ 1972 Guardian 3 Apr. 11/3 Dirty old goat... He only bows his head to get his horn up.

    6. a. Horns (like those of quadrupeds) have been attributed to deities, demons, to Moses, etc., and are represented in images, pictures, etc. Cf. sense 16.

a 1400–50 Alexander 319 Þis myȝty god..How he is merkid & made is mervaile to neuyn With..twa tufe hornes. c 1590 Marlowe Faust. iv. 58 All he-devils has horns. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. iv. 16 Let's write good Angell on the Deuills horne. a 1822 Shelley Devil ii. 3 His horns were concealed by a Bras Chapeau. 1832 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) II. 64 Horns and a tail would not be more decisive to a frightened child at midnight. 1895 Elworthy Evil Eye vi. 186 note, The belief that Moses had actual solid horns must have been firmly held in the Middle Ages. Ibid. 197 From Tahiti was exhibited an idol, with two large horns on its head carved in wood.

    b. horns of consecration: in Mycenæan art, a pictorial symbol or object, often found together with the double axe and pillar, connected with the Cretan worship of the ox.

1901 A. J. Evans in Jrnl. Hellenic Studies XXI. 196 The columns of the Knossian shrine apparently approach the outer edge of the openings, leaving room, however, in front of them for the ‘horns of consecration’. 1939 V. G. Childe Dawn Europ. Civilization (ed. 3) v. 73 The cult of the Mother Goddess, associated, as in Crete, with the symbols of the dove, the double-axe, the sacred pillar and horns of consecration. 1939 J. D. S. Pendlebury Archæol. Crete v. 274 The double axe itself is found as a votive offering and as a cult object between the horns of consecration. 1970 Bray & Trump Dict. Archaeol. 149/2 Minoan religion is somewhat obscure, but includes a Mother Goddess who was worshipped in many shrines equipped with figurines..the sacred double axe and horns of consecration.

    7. a. Cuckolds were fancifully said to wear horns on the brow. to give horns to, to graft, plant horns on: to cuckold.
    [The origin of this, which appears in so many European langs., and, seemingly, even in late Gr. in phrase κέρατα ποιεῖν τινί (Artemidorus, Oneirocritica II. 12) is referred by Dunger (Germania XXIX. 59) to the practice formerly prevalent of planting or engrafting the spurs of a castrated cock on the root of the excised comb, where they grew and became horns, sometimes of several inches long. He shows that Ger. hahnreh or hahnrei ‘cuckold’, originally meant ‘capon’.]

1430–40 Lydg. Bochas ii. xxiii. (Bodl. MS.) lf. 128/1 A certeyn knyht Giges callid..To speke pleyn inglissh made hym a cokold. Alas I was nat auysid weel beforne On⁓cunnyngli to speke such language; I sholde ha said how that he hadde an horn..As in sum land Cornodo men them call. c 1530 Hickscorner in Hazl. Dodsley I. 180 My mother was a lady of the stews' blood born, And..my father ware an horn. c 1537 Thersites Ibid. 412. 1594 Greene & Lodge Looking Glasse (1598) H ij a, Nay, sir, he was a cuckoldly diuell, for hee had hornes on his head. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 28. 1600 ― A.Y.L. iv. ii. 18. 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. i. ii. 4 Oh that I knewe this Husband, which you say, must change his Hornes with Garlands. 1700 Dryden Epil. 25 Mar. 10 London a fruitful soil, yet never bore So plentiful a crop of horns before. 1728 Young Love Fame i. 70 And the brib'd cuckold..glories in his gilded horn. a 1796 Burns Cooper o' Cuddie iii, On ilka brow she's planted a horn. 1822 Scott Nigel xxxvi, O what a generous creature is your true London husband! Horns hath he, but..he goreth not. 1942 D. Powell Time to be Born (1943) i. 24 Julian was almost pathologically jealous of her, fearing the final indignity of horns.

    † b. to make horns at [F. faire les cornes à, It. far le corna a]: to hold the fist with two fingers extended like a pair of horns, as an insulting gesture.

[Cf. c 1530 Crt. Love 1390 This folissh dove will give us all an horn!] 1607 Dekker & Webster Northw. Ho i. D.'s Wks. 1873 III. 9 If a man be deuorst..whether may he haue an action or no, gainst those that make horns at him? 1627 Drayton Agincourt etc. 174 Some made mouthes at him, others as in scorne With their forkt fingers poynted him the horne. 1652 Peyton Catastr. Stuarts (1731) 30 Denmark was so disquised, as he would have lain with the Countess of Nottingham, making Horns in Derision at her Husband the High Admiral of England.

    8. In Biblical and derived uses: An emblem of power and might; a means of defence or resistance; hence horn of salvation († health) is used of God or Christ. to lift up the horn: to exalt oneself; to offer resistance, ‘show fight’.
    [Representing well-known uses of Heb. qeren horn, found also in Syriac, Arabic, and the Semitic langs. generally. Through the Septuagint and Vulgate also in late Gr. and Lat., and so in the mod. langs.: cf. F. lever les cornes. (Some would explain it from sense 16.)]

c 825 Vesp. Psalter lxxiv. [lxxv.] 5 Nyllað uphebban horn. a 1300 E.E. Psalter xvii. 3 Mi schelder, and of min hele horne. Ibid. lxxiv. 11 Alle hornes of sinful breke sal I þa, And up-hoven ben hornes of rightwys ma. 1382 Wyclif Luke i. 69 He haþ rerid to vs an horn of helþe, in þe hous of dauiþ his child. 1570 Tragedie 277 in Satir. Poems Reform. x. 90 Than did sum Lords lyft vp yair hornis on hie. 1611 Bible 2 Sam. xxii. 3 Hee is my shield, and the horne of my saluation. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 632 Fleeing then to his horne or defense in time of distresse. a 1703 Burkitt On N.T., Luke i. 79 The horn in Scripture signifies glory and dignity, strength and power. 1806 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Tristia Wks. 1812 V. 341 On Homer's birth-place, proud t'exalt their horn. 1844 E. Robinson tr. Gesenius' Heb. Lex. 954 s.v. qeren. Metaph. horn is put as the symbol of strength, might, power, the image being drawn from the bull and other animals which push with their horns. 1886 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Paston Carew xliii, Pride, when it has lowered its horn as it skirted by ruin, now raises it again as it touches success.

    II. As a substance, or an article made of it.
    9. The substance of which the horns of animals consist, as a material for manufacturing purposes or the like. gate of horn: see gate n.¹ 5.

1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. ii. (Arb.) 135 Many countryes bothe of olde tyme and nowe, vse heades of horne. 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 39 Horn..a substauns..nether so churlish in weight az iz mettall..nor roough to the lips, az wood iz. 1577 Harrison England ii. xii. (1877) i. 236 The Saxons..did make panels of horne in steed of glasse. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado v. iv. 126 There is no staff more reuerend than one tipt with horn. 1647 H. More Song of Soul ii. i. ii. v, A lamp arm'd with pellucid horn. 1784 Cowper Tiroc. 120 Neatly secur'd from being soil'd or torn Beneath a pane of thin translucent horn..'Tis called a book, though but a single page. 1843 J. A. Smith Product. Farming (ed. 2) 133 Horn is a still more powerful manure than bone,—that is to say, it contains a greater proportion of organized animal matter.

    10. A structure of the nature of horn; the hardened and thickened epidermis or cuticle of which hoofs, nails, corns, the callosities on the camel's legs, etc. consist. († Formerly also = hoof.)

c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 815 [A stallion] With holgh horn high yshood. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 164 b/2 He knelyd so oft in prayers that his knees were as harde as the horne of a camel. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iii. vii. 17 The basest horne of his hoofe, is more Musicall than the Pipe of Hermes. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 287 Of the horns or hard knobs growing under the Sadle side. 1763 Wesley Nat. Philos. (1784) I. i. iii. §5. 159 From three years old, [she] had Horns growing on various parts of her body..they are fastened to the skin like warts..but toward the end are much harder. 1764 Croker, etc. Dict. Arts & Sc. s.v. Tanning, When the skin has not been kept long enough in the lime, or in the tan-pit, upon cutting it in the middle there appears a whitish streak, called the horn or crudity of the skin. 1808–18 Jamieson, Horn, an excrescence on the foot, a corn. 1867 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. III. ii. 446 The straw in wet weather softens the horns of sheep's feet.

    11. a. An article manufactured of horn; the side of a lantern; a thimble, esp. one used by cutpurses to catch the edge of the knife in cutting the purse-strings; a horn spoon or scoop, a shoe-horn.

1483 Act 1 Rich. III, c. 12 §2 That no merchaunt Straungier..brynge into this Realme lantern hornes. c 1560 Preston Cambyses in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 235 A horn on your thumb, A quick eye, a sharp knife, at hand a receiver. 1573–80 Baret Alv. H 637 A shooing horne, cornu calcearium. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 86 To make hafts for knives, or else horns for Spectacles. 1683 Wilding in Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 258 For a horne in my Lanterne..00 00 02. 1810 Crabbe Borough xviii, How she, all patient, both at eve and morn Her needle pointed at the guarding horn. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Horn, a spoon or scoop of horn, in which washings are tested in prospecting.

    b. In Golf, the substance of which part of the face of a wooden club is made.

1743 T. Mathison Goff i. 5 Fenc'd with horn the head. 1801 J. Strutt Sports & Pastimes ii. iii. 81 Goff..is performed with a bat,..the curvature is affixed to the bottom, faced with horn and backed with lead. 1839 Chambers's Jrnl. 22 June 173/3 The curvature, made of thorn, is affixed to the bottom, faced with horn, and backed with lead. 1890 H. G. Hutchinson Golf iii. 65 There is, however, something to be said in favour of dispensing altogether with the ‘horn’ in the case of brass-soled clubs.

    c. by the (great) horn spoon: used as a fanciful oath or formula of asseveration. U.S.

1842 Amer. Nat. Song Bk. II. 222 He vow'd by the great horn spoon..He'd give them a licking, and that pretty soon. 1848 Lowell Biglow P. 1st Ser. v. 16 ‘I should like to shoot The holl gang, by the gret horn spoon!’ sez he. 1853 Knickerbocker XLI. 115 ‘By the horn spoons!’ repeated the skipper suddenly. 1897 Outing (U.S.) XXX. 380/2 ‘By the Great Horn Spoon!’ the voice shouted, ‘here's a chunk of civilization.’ 1948 Time 22 Nov. 25/1 Operators had sworn by the Great Horn Spoon that they would not negotiate with Harry (‘The Nose’) Bridges.

    III. The hollow horn of an animal (without the core) used as a vessel or a musical instrument, with senses thence developed.
    12. a. A vessel formed from the horn of a cow or other beast, or in later times shaped after this, for holding liquid (as drink, oil, or ink), powder, etc.; a drinking-horn; a powder-flask; also, a similarly shaped vessel for cupping. Hence a hornful; a draught of ale or other liquor.

c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 126 Sete horn on þa openan scear⁓pan. 1073 Charter in Dipl. Angl. ævi Sax. (Th.) 428,11 ᵹebonede hnæppas, and iiii. hornas. a 1300 Cursor M. 7345 Þou fill þi horn Wit oile, and weind þe forth. a 1300 K. Horn 1153 Heo fulde hire horn wiþ wyn, And dronk to þe pilegrym. 1382 Wyclif 1 Sam. xvi. 13. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. xxi. (Bodl. MS.), Men shall..souke it oute oþer drawe it oute wiþ an horne oþer a copping cuppe. 1583 Hollyband Campo di Fior 333 Give me a penne and ink-horne. 1587 L. Mascall Govt. Cattle (1627) 11 Giue it the beast in the morning with a horne. 1634 T. Johnson Parey's Chirurg. xii. iv. (1678) 295 Ther shall you apply Cupping-glasses, or Horns. 1682 Wood Life 31 May, He went to Queen's College..and had a horne of beere. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. iv, I took out..a horn of powder. 1804 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ep. to Ld. Mayor Wks. 1812 V. 206 My horn's last drop of ink To raise her glory, lo, I'll shed it. 1851 D. Jerrold St. Giles xviii. 190 Take another horn of ale. 1868 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. 323 The Runic Horn, so rich and rare, so barbarically magnificent, altogether unique, a splendid and mystic relic.

    b. horn of plenty or abundance = cornucopia.

c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxiii. iii, They see Their horne of plenty freshly flowing still. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 52 He hath the horne of Abundance. 1707 Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 193 Holding in his Left Hand a Reed, and in his Right a Horn of Plenty. 1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 826 Wood-carving, consisting of..flowers and two horns of plenty. 1886 Besant Childr. Gibeon ii. xxviii, Nature, very oddly, when the Horn of Plenty is quite empty, always fills it with babies.

    c. horn of plenty grass: see quot.

1866 Treas. Bot. 333/1 Cornucopia cucullata, the Horn of Plenty grass, a native of Greece and Asia Minor..frequently cultivated in gardens amongst curious annuals.

    13. a. A wind instrument more or less resembling a horn in shape, and originally formed of the horn of some beast, now made of brass or other material. Also with qualifying words, as bugle horn, hunting-horn, post-horn, tin horn, valve horn, etc.

c 825 Vesp. Psalter lxxx. 4 [lxxxi. 3] Singað in fruman monðes horne. a 1000 Laws of Wihtræd c. 28 (Schmid) He þonne nawðer ne hryme ne he horn ne blawe. c 1205 Lay. 25787 Hafe mine godne horn..and blawe hine mid maine. a 1300 Cursor M. 15011 Wit harp and pipe, and horn and trump. c 1400 Sowdone Bab. 2520 Thai..blewen hornes of bras. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. xxxiv. (Thornton MS.), We hunte at the herdis with hundes and with horne. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. v. i. 47 Ther's a Post come from my Master, with his horne full of good newes. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 267 The Vrij blow a horne of a wild Hart..but those of Lucerna use a horne of brasse. 1735 Somerville Chase ii. 186 The clanging Horns swell their sweet-winding Notes. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho iii, The hunter's horn hung from his belt.

    b. to wind the horn, to blow a blast on the horn, to sound the horn; also fig. of insects making a piping or humming sound. to blow (U.S. toot) one's own horn: ‘to blow one's own trumpet’ (see trumpet n. 3).

1611 Heywood Gold. Age ii. Wks. 1874 III. 32 (Stage directions) Hornes winded..Winde hornes. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 7 Neither may the Citizens..winde a Horne in their night watches. 1637 Milton Lycidas 28 What time the grey-fly winds her sultry horn. 1746 Collins Odes, To Evening iii, Or where the beetle winds His small but sullen horn. 1783–94 Blake Songs Innoc., School-Boy 3 The distant huntsman winds his horn. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. xvii, But scarce again his horn he wound. 1859 ‘Mark Twain’ Lett. (1917) I. 43 Permit me to ‘blow my horn’. 1860 G. D. Prentice Prenticeana 63 ‘Blowing your own horn I see,’ said his comrade. 1903 A. W. Patterson Schumann 167 Surely these side⁓lights upon the straightforwardness and integrity of the man entirely free him from the calumny of ever being guilty of ‘blowing his own horn’. 1940 A. E. Hertzler Doctor & his Patients (1941) ii. 47 He that tooteth not his own horn, the same shall not be tooted. 1949 E. S. Gardner Case of Half-Wakened Wife ii. 9 Gregory, on the other hand, had been reticent, inarticulate, sensitive, a man who modestly refrained from tooting his own horn and didn't like to hear others talk about themselves.

    c. (More fully French horn) An orchestral wind instrument of the trumpet class, developed from the hunting-horn, and consisting of a continuous tube some 17 feet in length, curved for convenience in holding, and having a wide bell and a conoidal mouthpiece.

1682 Loyal Protestant & Domestick Intelligencer 7 Mar. [2]/2 (Advt.), Any Gentleman may be furnished with Trumpets, French horns, Speaking Trumpets. 1742 Pope Dunc. iv. 278 The voice was drown'd By the French horn, or by the op'ning hound. 1753 Scots Mag. Sept. 427/1 A band of French horns. 1771 C. Burney Pres. St. Mus. 149 There were two organs, and two pair of French horns. 1856 Mrs. C. Clarke tr. Berlioz' Instrument. 129 All horns with the exception of the horn in C, are transposing instruments. 1879 W. H. Stone in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 748/1 The hunting horn finally adopted differs from the orchestral horn in consisting of an unbroken spiral of three turns, sufficiently large to be worn obliquely round the body, resting on one shoulder and passing under the opposite arm. Ibid. 748/2 The introduction of the Horn into the orchestra is attributed to Gossec. 1961 R. M. Pegge in A. Baines Mus. Instruments xii. 297 In England [sc. in the 18th cent.]..the French horn was chiefly used for the purposes of entertainment in the pleasure gardens and on the river, two performers playing duets being the usual thing. Rich men of family and fashion sometimes included in their retinues French horn players, often Negroes, to add panache to their equipages.

    d. English horn (Fr. cor anglais), a wind instrument of the oboe kind: see quots.

1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 292/2 The English Horn, or Corno Inglese, is a deeper-toned oboe, but of rather larger dimensions, somewhat bent, the lower end very open. 1879 W. H. Stone in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 488/2 English horn, the tenor oboe in F, intermediate between the ordinary oboe and the bassoon.

    e. An 8-foot reed-stop on an organ.

1722–4 Specif. Organ St. Dionis Backchurch in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 596 Great Organ..10. Trumpet. 11. French Horn to tenor D. [‘It appears to have been the earliest organ to contain a {oqq}French Horn{cqq} stop.’] 1834 Specif. Organ York Minster Ibid. 600 Swell Organ..42. Horn. 43. Trumpet.

    f. An instrument attached to motor vehicles, etc., which is sounded as a warning signal. Also attrib.

1901 Graphic LXIV. 268/3 The hideous toot-toot of its horn. 1914 R. & E. Shackleton Four on Tour in Eng. 83 The horn was honked suddenly. 1939 H. Hodge Cab, Sir? 19 And plenty of hornwork. The more the toots the bigger the tip. 1965 New Statesman 22 Oct. 594/2 The car..is taking over this enchanting city [sc. Rome]... The official campaign to cut down horn-maniacs appears to be a total failure. 1969 Highway Code 49 You must not..sound your horn at night (11.30 p.m.–7 a.m.) in a built-up area. 1973 Sat. Rev. Soc. (U.S.) May 42 Horn alarms: many inexpensive devices that can be hooked into the automobile horn can now be bought for less than $10.

    g. A horn-shaped pastry case; an ice-cream cornet.

1908, 1960 [see cream horn s.v. cream n.2 7]. 1927 ‘R. Crompton’ William—in Trouble viii. 202 In one hand it held a stick of rock; in the other an ice cream horn. It licked them alternately. 1933 ― William—the Rebel xi. 212, I c'n eat twenty ice-cream horns. 1951 Good Housek. Home Encycl. 426/1 For savoury horns use a mixture such as those suggested for bouchées. 1969 Main Cookery Bk. (ed. 14) 172 Pastry horns can only be made using a special cone-shaped pastry case.

    h. Jazz slang. A trumpet.

1935 Hot News May 5/1 He just threw his horn away and went into a pawnshop and bought another. 1938 D. Baker Young Man with Horn 9 And then he learned to play a horn—a trumpet, if there's anybody here who doesn't know what kind of a horn a horn is—and that was his proper medium. 1955 R. Davis in A. J. McCarthy Jazzbook 1955 40 Bunk was the subject of articles in the New York Herald-Tribune and the magazine Time, in which he was somewhat superlatively described as ‘genius of the horn’. 1959 G. Avakian in M. T. Williams Art of Jazz (1960) 68 Each of these trio cuttings ends with Bix picking up his horn to play the coda.

    i. Jazz slang. Any kind of wind instrument.

1937 Metronome Jan. 25/1 Satchmo, I was only kiddin'. I'll give you your horn back. 1938 [see prec.]. 1966 Melody Maker 30 July 8/3 Every instrument became a horn. When a guy said ‘Can I bring my horn for a sit in,’ you never knew whether he'd show up with a goofus or a glockenspiel. 1966 Crescendo Aug. 21/2 If I'm happy with the horn I've got, the mouthpiece, the set-up, the reed and everything.

    j. The player of a horn (sense 13 c, h and i).

1945 L. Shelly Jive Talk Dict. 35 The Horn, the famous trumpeter. 1947 R. de Toledano Frontiers of Jazz p. ix, Did you ever try to relax while some fine horns were blowing, like for instance, Maxey, Pee Wee, and Bird? 1955 Keepnews & Grauer Pict. Hist. Jazz i. 14 Freddie Keppard was among the very great New Orleans horns. 1955 S. Whitmore Solo iv. 52 Take Buddy Bolden, if you will. A great horn. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 26 ‘We've been lucky,’ Harry Freedman, English horn, said. ‘Ozawa has..done much to build up the orchestra.’

    k. the horn: the telephone. U.S. colloq.

1945 L. Shelly Jive Talk Dict. 31/1 On the horn, telephoning. 1962 [see flat adv. 3 b]. 1967 D. C. Cooke c/o American Embassy (1968) xi. 104 I've been on the horn half the night trying to get you. 1970 C. Armstrong Protégé vii. 89 I'll have to get on the horn tomorrow and poke up my contacts.

    14. a. The wind instrument as used in forms of legal process; e.g. in the Scotch ceremony of proclaiming an outlaw, when three blasts were blown on a horn by the king's messenger; hence to put (denounce) to the horn, to proclaim an outlaw, to outlaw; † to be at the horn, to be out of the protection of the law, proclaimed an outlaw.

1397 Sc. Acts Rob. III (1844) I. 574/1 [red] Qwhasa cumys nocht within þe said terme sal be at þe kyngis horne and þair landis and gudis eschete. 1432 Sc. Acts Jas. I, c. 11 (1814) II. 22/1 Ilk officiar of þe kingis as mare or kingis seriande..sal nocht pass in þe cuntre na þe baroun seriande in þe barony but a horne and his wande. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. xii. vi. (Jam.), Makbeth..syne confiscat Makduffis guddis, & put him to the horn. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 76 For ȝe war all at Goddis horne. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. iv. xxiii. §2 (Jam.) Gif ane man findes ane theif with the fang..in⁓continent he sould raise the blast of ane horne vpon him; and gif he hes not ane horne, he sould raise the shout with his mouth; and cry lowdly that his neighbours may heare. c 1610 Sir J. Melvil Mem. (1735) 397 Such as were denounced to the Horn. a 1765 Erskine Inst. Law Scot. ii. v. §56 (1773) 236 The messenger must..read the letters, also with an audible voice, and afterwards blow three blasts with an horn; by which the debtor is understood to be proclaimed rebel to the King... Hence the letters of diligence are called letters of horning, and the debtor is said to be denounced at the horn. 1895 Crockett Men of Moss-Hags 121 Both of us were put to the horn and declared outlaw.

    † b. = horning n. 4. Obs. rare.

1491 Acta Dom. Conc. 205 (Jam.) The lordis prolongis the execucioun of the horne in the meyntime. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1829) 31 He compears before the council, and upon his compearance he is released from the horn.

    15. a. A trumpet- or cone-shaped accessory of early gramophones and phonographs that collects sound to be recorded and amplifies the sound reproduced; a similar structure in some kinds of loud-speaker that contains the diaphragm in its throat and is designed to transmit its vibrations to the air. Also attrib.

1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 485/2 The Graphophone or Talking Machine is a most wonderful invention... By using the horn they can be distinctly heard in every part of a large hall. 1904 S. R. Bottone Talking Machines 62 The horn or trumpet which collects the sounds should be of papier mâchè, and not of metal. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 468/2 The person making the record sings or plays in front of a horn or funnel. 1927 Wireless World 16 Nov. 664 When broadcasting first started, the only type of loudspeaker on the market was one which had..a straight conical horn. 1931 B. Brown Talking Pictures v. 121 Some of the first horns to be used in sound pictures were of the straight trumpet type. 1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! iv. 257 The old pre-electric horn recording, with its euphoniums instead of 'cellos, and its handful of Stroh violins. 1946 T. Rattigan Winslow Boy i. 12 He points to a gramophone—1912 model, with horn—lying on a table. 1956 C. Fowler High Fidelity vi. 103 Most tweeters used in high-fidelity systems employ small diaphragms which work into a horn of some sort. 1957 L. Durrell Justine ii. 141 The same night, on the old horn gramophone..I heard some amateur's recording. 1969 Listener 23 Jan. 121/3 A pre-electric horn gramophone. 1970 R. D. Ford Introd. Acoustics v. 98 Horns are also very useful for improving the performance of loudspeakers at low frequencies.

    b. Radio. Any hollow waveguide that increases in one or both transverse dimensions towards the open end and can consequently act as a transmitting or receiving aerial. Also attrib., as horn aerial, horn antenna.

1936 W. L. Barrow in Proc. Inst. Radio Engin. XXIV. 1328 [The pipe can be flared into a horn-shaped radiator]. Ibid., The application of horn radiators is not confined to the hollow tube system, for they may be fed by a coaxial or other lines... Thus, electromagnetic horns may be used as radiators in the wave band below ten meters. 1939 Ibid. XXVII. 51 The operation of the electromagnetic horn ‘antenna’. 1949 H. E. Penrose Princ. & Pract. Radar xxii. 511 In general, the longer the opening of the horn, the more directive is the resulting field pattern. 1961 H. Jasik Antenna Engin. Handbk. x. 7 The pyramidal horn is frequently used as a standard horn of known gain in making measurements of other antennas. 1961 Miczaika & Sinton Tools of Astronomer viii. 261 Often a parabola is fed by a wave guide that terminates in a horn aimed at the disk. 1962 [see antenna 5]. 1970 [see despin v.]. 1972 Daily Tel. 28 June 11/8 Mounted inconspicuously in its front grille were two four-inch-square radar ‘horns’—one for transmitting, the other for receiving.

    IV. A horn-shaped or horn-like projection; one of two or more such; a corner, an angle.
    16. A horn-like appendage or ornament worn on the head. (Cf. sense 6.)
    Actual horns or antlers of beasts have been and are sometimes worn by primitive peoples; horns of metal have been from time immemorial worn by women in some eastern countries; the name was also given to part or the whole of head-dresses worn in England, and to forms in which the hair was done up in the 14th and 15th c.

1340 Ayenb. 176 Þo þet makeþ zuo greate hornes of hare here oþer of oþren þet hi sembleþ wel fole wyfmen. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 62 Ladyes and gentilwomen, that were mervelously arraied..and hadde highe hornes. 1605 Camden Rem. (1870) 214 Queen Anne, wife to King Richard the second..brought in high head attire piked with horns. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 536 About her fore-head a haire-lace with two horns... The horned Beldame still muttereth certaine wordes. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 169 A hoyke or vaile which..hath a kinde of horne rising over the forehead. Ibid. 172 Women of Venice..raise up their hair on the forehead in two knotted hornes. 1859 Thomson Land & Bk. i. vi. (1872) 74 The princesses of Lebanon and Hermon sported gold horns, decked with jewels. 1864 Kitto's Cycl. Bibl. Lit. s.v., The women among the Druses on Mount Lebanon wear on their heads silver horns of native make which are the distinguishing badge of wifehood.

    17. A projection, like a horn, at each corner of the altar in the Jewish temple; one of the two outer corners of the altar in some churches.

c 1000 Ags. Ps. (Spelm.) cxvii[i]. 27 Oð horn wibedes [Thorpe oð wiᵹ-bedes..hornas]. a 1300 E.E. Psalter ibid. Settes miri daie in thicknesse, Unto horn þat of weved esse. 1382 Wyclif 1 Kings i. 51 Adonyas dredynge kyng Salomon, holdith the horn of the auter. 1611 Bible Exod. xxvii. 2 Thou shalt make an Altar of Shittim wood..And thou shalt make the hornes of it vpon the foure corners thereof. 1816 Keatinge Trav. (1817) I. 49 Delinquency, a garrison qualification, first clings to the horns of the altar. 1877 J. D. Chambers Div. Worship 196 At the right horn of the Altar.

    18. a. Each of the pointed extremities of the moon as she appears in her first and last quarters (or of Mercury or Venus in a similar phase); each end of a crescent; a cusp.

a 1000 Riddles xxx. (Gr.), Ic wiht ᵹeseah..hornum bi⁓tweonum huðe lædan. c 1400 Rom. Rose 5340 The shadowe maketh her bemis merke, And hir hornes to shewe derke. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 5 The Idol Isis, bearing two hornes of the Moone. Ibid. 27 This City is of the forme of an half Moone..and..imbraceth betweene the two hornes the lesser City. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 433 From the hornes Of Turkish Crescent. 1726–46 Thomson Winter 125 The moon Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns. 1813 Scott Trierm. iii. xi, Till..The moon renew'd her silver horn. 1816 Playfair Nat. Phil. II. 179 Certain periodical inequalities, observed in the Horns of the disk [of Mercury], seem to indicate a revolution on an axis. 1869 Huxley Physiol. xi. 286 This grey substance [of the spinal cord] is so disposed that..it looks something like a crescent... The two ends of the crescent are called its horns or cornua.

    b. Each tip or end of a bow.

1611 Cotgr. s.v. Cornette, Les cornettes d'un arc, the hornes, or hornie tips of a long Bow. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 524 At either Horn the Rainbow drinks the Flood. ― æneid ix. 854 He drew, And almost join'd the horns of the tough yew. 1772 Cook 1st Voy. i. vii, The island was shaped exactly like a bow..The horns, or extremities of the bow, were two large tufts of cocoa-nut-trees. 1879 E. Arnold Lt. Asia 34 Drew the twisted string Till the horns kissed.

    19. Each of the two wings of an army; = L. cornu.

1533 Bellenden Livy v. (1822) 457 The left horne of Romanis.. fled to the brayis of Tiber. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iii. ii. 70 Seruing for hornes or wings vnto the battell. 1636 E. Dacres tr. Machiavel's Disc. Livy II. 520 Quintius seeing one of the hornes of his Army beginning to fayle. 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales I. 106 [I] perceived the two horns, or wings, of the troop, making..to outflank, and then enclose us.

    20. Each of two (or more) lateral projections, arms, or branches. a. The two arms of a cross (late L. cornua crucis). b. The two projecting divisions of the uterus (cornua uteri). Also, any cornu. c. The branches of a river or estuary, the narrow arms of a bay (L. cornua).

a. 13.. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. xxiii. 621 In crucis cornibus a iudeis tentum..Þat on þe hornes of þe Croys Iewes helden wiþ-outen les. 1814 Cary Dante, Paradise xviii. 30 On the horns..of the cross.

b. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. Q b/2 The Testicles or Hornes of the Wombe. 1802 C. Bell Anat. Brain 15 The Choroid Plexus..will be seen sinking backwards into the great inferior horn of the Ventricle. 1889 J. M. Duncan Lect. Dis. Wom. viii. (ed. 4) 43 The fœtus developed in a uterine horn. 1901 J. Berry Dis. Thyroid Gland i. 6 Small portions of the larynx and pharynx are embraced by the upper horns [of the thyroid]. 1957 R. T. Woodburne Essent. Human Anat. iv. 300/1 The coccygeal horns..articulate with the horns of the sacrum and enclose the fifth sacral intervertebral foramen. 1972 Nature 22 Oct. 521/1 In the spinal cord..the motoneurones of the ventral horn..are subject to a variety of inhibitory influences.

c. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 409 With sev'n-fold Horns mysterious Nile Surrounds the Skirts of Egypt's fruitful Isle. 1840 E. Fitzgerald Lett. (1889) I. 61, I remember a ravine on the horn of the bay opposite the town where the sea rushes up. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 50 Within the long horns of a sandy bay.

    21. pl. a. The awns of barley. dial. b. fig. Rigid branches of leafless trees.

a. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Horns, the awns of barley. 1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 386 A barley aveller..for..rubbing the horns or avels off barley. 1893 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Dec. 696 The Himalayan barley which has three short horns to the flowering glume.

b. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. cvii, The wood which grides and clangs Its leafless ribs and iron horns.

    22. A pointed or tapering projection. a. The beak of an ancient galley (obs.); of an anvil; the end of an ancient roll of bread: cf. Ger. horn, It. cornuto ‘a kind of loafes or simnell bread cornered’.

c 1205 Lay. 4538 Scip ærne to ȝen scip..horn a-ȝen horne. c 1300 Havelok 779 For hom he brouthe fele siþe Wastels, simenels with þe horn. 1826 Scott Diary 10 Feb. in Lockhart, When I was a young man, I was able at times to lift a smith's anvil with one hand, by what is called the ‘horn’.

    b. Name of the projections or crutches on a side-saddle, which support or are grasped between the rider's knees; also the high pommel of a Spanish or half-Spanish saddle.

1849 F. Parkman Calif. & Oregon Trail iv. 41 My long heavy rifle encumbered me, and the low sound it made striking the horn of my saddle startled him. a 1861 T. Winthrop Canoe & Saddle (1862) 212, I threw Klale's bridle over his neck, and grasping the horn, swung myself into the saddle. 1947 Harper's Mag. July 42/1 He took off his battered gray hat and rested it on the horn of his saddle.

    c. A piece of land projecting into the sea, etc.; a promontory.

1601 Holland Pliny I. 135 Media..casting forth a crooked and winding horne as it were toward the West, seemeth to enclose within that compasse both the said realmes. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. i. 505 The conquering Brute, on Corineus braue This horne of land [Cornwall] bestow'd. 1865 Athenæum No. 1947. 225/1 The extreme western horn of Brittany.

    d. A mountain peak (sometimes fig., sometimes = Swiss-Ger. horn).

1820 Keats Hyper. ii. 12 Rocks that..Forehead to forehead held their monstrous horns. 1846 L. S. Costello Tour to & fr. Venice 389 Strange-pointed rocks, piercing the skies, the horns of the dolomite mountains. 1861 Symonds in Biog. (1895) I. 156 The Bernese Alps..and their snow-capped horns. 1886 Pall Mall G. 4 Sept. 5/1 The highest point of the Cuchullins is Scuir Dearg, the ‘Red Peak’, a square-shaped mountain, topped with a strange-looking horn of rock.

    e. A part of a plant shaped like a horn, beak, or spur.

1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) II. 434 Capsule when ripe lengthened out into a straight horn. 1804 in Charl. Smith Convers. I. 40 The woodbine's honied horn. 1819 Pantologia, Horn or Spur in Botany..The hinder hollow part of the nectary in some flowers, extended in a conical form: as in Orchis, Larkspur, etc.

    f. The minute apex of a Hebrew letter, as at the top of {hebmem} or {hebdaleth}.

1879 Farrar St. Paul ix. (1883) 103 They remembered what He had said about the permanence of every yod and horn of a letter in the Law.

    g. Electr. Either of the pointed projections at the edge of a pole-piece of an electric motor or generator.

1886 S. P. Thompson Dyn.-Electr. Machinery (ed. 2) v. 88 The greatest amount of such eddy-currents will be generated..where the magnetic perturbations are greatest and most sudden... This should be at the leading corner or ‘horn’ of the pole-piece of the generating dynamo. 1923 A. S. Langsdorf Princ. Direct-Current Machines (ed. 3) ii. 91 Increased area is secured by means of pole shoes bolted or dove-tailed to the core in the case of solid poles, or by means of projecting tips or horns punched integrally with the sheets composing a laminated pole.

    h. Aeronaut. (i) A short lug or lever projecting from a control surface to which the wire for moving the surface is attached.

1920 H. Woodhouse Textbk. Appl. Aeronaut. Engin. 319/2 Horn-control arm, an arm at right angles to a control surface to which a control cable is attached, for example, aileron horn, rudder horn, elevator horn, etc. More commonly called a Mast. 1928 Chatfield & Taylor Airplane v. 75 The cables from the horns on the ailerons are led to the stick. 1952 A. Y. Bramble Air-Plane Flight vii. 101 Notice the curved projecting pieces above and below on each aileron. These are called ‘horns’, and from these we see wires running forward into holes in the wing.

    (ii) A part of an aileron or other control surface that extends across the axis of rotation over part of its length and serves to improve the balance of the surface; so horn balance, horn-balanced adj.

1921 Aeronaut. Jrnl. XXV. 539 The most common method of balancing ailerons is to have a ‘horn’ or projection on the aileron beyond the wing tip and forward of the aileron hinge. Ibid. 554 The horn method of balancing elevators. 1922 Encycl. Brit. XXX. 23/2 This so-called ‘horn’ balance proved unsatisfactory. 1939 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XLIII. 424 This effect was noticed during the war on horn-balanced rudders, and has now been used in the design of elevators. 1952 W. J. Duncan Control & Stability Aircraft vii. 195 A horn balance is a local protuberance of the control surface lying forward of the hinge axis... The horn may lie behind the main surface (shielded horn) or be exposed to the airstream. 1968 B. Dickinson Aircraft Stability & Control x. 235 If the horn extends to the leading edge of the aerofoil it is referred to as an ‘unshielded’ horn.

    23. Arch. † In OE. a pinnacle or gable (obs.); each of the Ionic volutes (likened to ram's horns); the projections of an abacus, etc.: see quots.

c 1000 Finnesburg 4 (Gr.) Ne þisse healle hornas ne byrnað. 1847 Craig, Horn,..a name sometimes given to the Ionic volute. 1852–61 Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict. s.v., In general the word Horn (Fr. corne) is employed to express each of the four projecting portions of any abacus which has its faces curved on a plan... The terms horn or side-arm are also applied to the portions which project beyond the rest of a piece of framed work, as in the head of a solid door-frame.

    24. Naut. See quots. (In quot. 1887 tr. L. cornua the ends of the sail-yards: cf. antenna.)

1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 167 Horns, the jaws, or semi-circular ends of booms and gaffs. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Horn, the arm of a cleat or kevel. Horns, the points of the jaws of the booms. Also the outer ends of the cross-trees. Horns of the Rudder = Rudder-horns. Horns of the tiller, the pins at the extremity. 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 76 The foremost horn of the topmast trestle-tree. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid iii. 548 Windward pointing the horns of the sail-clothed yards of the fleet.

    25. Fortif. = hornwork.

1709 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) VI. 497 One of our bombs fell into a magazine in the horn, blew it up, and ruin'd great part of the wall.

    26. a. In various other technical applications.

1875 R. F. Martin tr. Havrez Winding Mach. 60 It is to be feared that the rope might slip down between its own coil and the horns of the rope rolls. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Horn..8. (Milling) One of the points of a driver, on the summit of a millstone spindle..which project into the coffins of the runner to convey the motion of the spindle thereto. 9. One of the prongs or crutches of an elevating screw or jack. 10. A curved projection on the forepart of a plane. 1884 Ibid. Suppl., Horn (Railway U.S.), One of the projecting parts of a pedestal, between which the journal-boxes work = Horn-block.

    b. Electr. Each of a pair of rod conductors that diverge in a vertical plane from a narrow gap at the base, designed to extinguish any arc that forms in the gap and used to protect power lines from voltage surges; so horn arrester, horn gap; also, a projecting rod conductor that protects an insulator by attracting away from it any arc that forms.

1911 Trans. Amer. Inst. Electr. Engin. XXIX. i. 582 The relief gaps were removed before the lightning season of 1908. The grounded horn was left in place to act as a lightning rod. Ibid. 600 We placed the horn gaps on the towers, about 500 feet apart. 1930 Engineering 7 Mar. 314/2 Insulators on high-voltage lines are protected by arcing horns. 1968 P. J. Freeman Electric Power ix. 253 The shape of the horn gap forces the arc upwards by magnetic and thermal effects and the arc is self-extinguishing. 1969 L. Csuros in Power Syst. Protection (Electr. Council) III. xii. 20 The arcing horns shown on the 132 kV bushings serve the main purpose of protecting the metal fittings on..the bushing by providing a suitable anchorage for the fault arc.

    V. 27. Each of the alternatives of a dilemma (in Scholastic Lat. argumentum cornutum), on which one is figured as liable to be caught or impaled.

1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xx. 158 [verses 3–7] Thys forked questyon; which the sophisters call an horned question, because that to whether of both partyes a bodye shall make a direct aunswere, he shall renne on the sharpe poyncte of the horne. 1647 Cowley Mistr., Agst. Hope i, And both the Horns of Fates Dilemma wound. 1668 H. More Div. Dial. i. xviii. (1713) 38 This seems a smart Dilemma at first..yet I think neither Horn is strong enough to push us off from our belief of the Existence of a God. 1755 Young Centaur v. 183 That horn of the alternative wounds more than the former. 1853 W. Jerdan Autobiog. III. x. 137 [He] placed the King in a dilemma, from the horn of which he could not extricate himself. 1887 Fowler Deduct. Logic v. 121 In disputation, the adversary who is refuted by a dilemma is said to be ‘fixed on the horns of a dilemma’.

    VI. attrib. and Comb.
    28. a. Simple attrib. = of a horn or horns, as horn-call, horn colour, horn measurement, horn shavings.

1632 B. Jonson Magn. Lady v. i, They burnt old shoes, goose-feathers, assafœtida, A few horn-shavings..And shee is well again. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 54 Shell..yellowish horn colour. 1855 Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 70 Horn shavings, from the large proportion of nitrogen in them, are a powerful manure. 1896 Daily News 13 Nov. 6/6 Records of horn measurements. 1912 G. Moore Hail & Farewell! Salve vi. 102 If I knew Elgar, I'd write and ask him to send me a horn-call. 1954 J. R. R. Tolkien Two Towers i. 15 Suddenly the horn-calls ceased. 1959 D. Cooke Lang. Mus. ii. 57 Wagner..makes a musical demonstration of the natural ‘rightness’ of the harmonic series, for the horn-call is preceded by the low E flat on the basses. 1971 Country Life 18 Feb. 358/1 Siegfried promptly announces his arrival by horn-call and wastes no time in walking into the trap.

    b. objective and obj. gen., as horn-bearer, horn-blower, horn-blowing, horn-player. c. similative, as horn-like, horn-shaped adjs. d. instrumental and locative, as horn-bind vb., horn-crested, horn-pushing, horn-yoked adjs.

1483 Cath. Angl. 188/2 An *Horne berer, corniger.

1679 Prot. Conformist 3 How they have *horn-bound for several years past the Bavarian Duke.

c 725 Corpus Gloss. 454 Cereacus, *horn blauuere. 1483 Cath. Angl. 188/2 An Horne blawer, cornicen. 1830 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 314 The horn-blowers of arbitrary power in England.

1870 Echo 23 Nov., Vague—not to say unsatisfactory pieces of *hornblowing.

1848 C. C. Clifford Aristoph., Frogs 9 *Horn-crested Pan.

1929 D. H. Lawrence Pansies 26 Honking *horn-like into the twilight. 1951 S. Spender World within World 162 The syllables which she unerringly chose to emphasize changed her speech into horn-like blasts.

1879 W. H. Stone in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 752/1 Rossini, the son of a *horn-player.

1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) II. 495 Aquilegia..nectaries 5, *horn-shaped. 1852–61 Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict. s.v., The horn-shaped leaf so often seen in English mediæval work.

    29. attrib. passing into adj. Made of horn, as horn bow, horn cup, lantern horn, horn ring, horn spoon, horn ware; formed naturally of horn, as horn foot, horn sheath. Hence parasynthetic combs., as horn-footed, horn-handled, horn-sheathed adjs.

c 1440 York Myst. xvi. 124 An horne spone. 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 40 Wear it not in deede that hornz bee so plentie, hornware I beleeue woold bee more set by than it iz. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 611 Not a Ribbon..Shooe-tye, Bracelet, Horne-Ring. 1611 Cotgr., Corne-pied, hoofed, horne-footed. 1665 Dryden Ind. Emp. ii. i, The frighted satyrs..their horn-feet ply. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 357 They draw their Bows with the Thumb armed with an Horn Ring. 1843 James Forest Days ii, The horn cup, which the host set down beside the tankard. 1844 W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scotl. ix. (1855) 93 The porrich..must be eaten with a horn spoon. 1847 Tennyson Princ. ii. 143 Horn-handed breakers of the glebe. 1854 Owen Skel. & Teeth in Circ. Sc., Organ. Nat. I. 276 This edentulous and horn-sheathed condition of the jaws. 1877 J. D. Chambers Div. Worship 251 Horn Chalices were forbidden. 1879 G. Macdonald P. Faber (1883) 201 If it is a horn lantern you've got. 1885 tr. Hehn's Wand. Pl. & Anim. 408 Horn-bows were used as well as those of yew. 1885 Tennyson Tiresias 10 Tramp of the hornfooted horse. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 619 A blunt hornhandled ordinary knife with nothing particularly Roman or antique about it. 1925 W. de la Mare Connoisseur (1926) 51 His horn-handled and gold-mounted umbrella.

    30. Special combs.: horn aerial, antenna (see horn n. 15 b); † horn-back = horn-fish; horn balance (see horn n. 22 h (ii)); horn-band, a band of musicians that play horns; horn-bar, the cross-bar of a carriage, or the gearing supporting the fore-spring stays; † horn battle, an army in battle array having horns or wings; † horn-beast , a horned beast, as an ox; † horn-beaten a., cuckolded; horn-beech = hornbeam; horn-bug, a North American beetle, Passalus cornutus, having its head armed with a stout curved horn; horn-card, a transparent plate of horn bearing a graduated scale, or the like (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); horn-cattle = horned cattle: see cattle 6; horn cell Anat., any of the ganglion cells of the cornua of the spinal cord; horn-centre, a mathematical instrument: see quot.; † horn-cod, a carob; † horn-coot = horn-owl; horn-core, the central bony part of the horn of quadrupeds, a process of the frontal bone; horn-distemper, ‘a disease of cattle, affecting the internal substance of the horn’ (Craig 1847); horn-drum (Hydraulics), a water-raising wheel divided into sections by curved partitions (Knight Dict. Mech.); horn-eyed a., having a horny film over the eye, dull-eyed; † horn-face, ? a stupid face, such as a cuckold might have; † horn-fair, ‘a fair formerly held at Charlton in Kent’ (Nares) for the sale of horn goods; used allusively by 17th and 18th c. writers with reference to cuckoldry; horn-fisted a., having hands made horny by hard work; horn-flint, flint of a horn-like appearance and translucency; horn-fly, a dipterous insect, Hæmatobia serrata, so called from its habit of clustering on the horns of cattle; † horn-foot, -feet a., having feet of horn, as horses; horn-footed; horn-frog, the horned frog: see horned; horngarth [garth¹] (see quot. 1928); horn gate Founding, a horn-shaped gate (gate n.⁴ 1 a) that curves downward from a runner and then upwards into a mould cavity, discharging through its narrow end; horn grass, a grass of the genus Ceratochloa (Craig 1847); horn-hard a., as hard as horn; also advb.; † horn-head, a horn-headed being, a cuckold; horn-hipped a. (see quot.); horn-lead, a name given by the old chemists to chloride of lead, because it assumes a horny appearance on fusing: cf. corneous; horn-machine, a shoe-soling machine, so called because the shoe is placed on a horn-like projection; horn-maker, a maker of horns; † one who ‘horns’ or cuckolds; horn-man, a man with a horn; spec. in Jamaica among the Maroons, a man who blew the horn, giving signals; horn-mercury, chloride of mercury: cf. horn-lead; † horn-mouth a., having a horn in the mouth; † horn-nose, a rhinoceros; horn-nut, the horned fruit of plants of the genus Trapa; horn-ore, ‘a species of silver ore of a pearl-grey colour, bordering on white’ (Craig); † horn-penny = horngeld; horn-piece, the skin (of an ox) with the horns attached; horn-pike, the horn-fish or garfish; horn-pith, the soft porous bone which fills the cavity of a horn; horn-plant, a seaweed, Ecklonia buccinalis; horn-pock, -pox, a mild form of smallpox or chicken-pox; horn-poppy, the Horned Poppy, Glaucium flavum; horn porphyry = hornslate; horn-pout (U.S.), a name for some fishes of the genus Amiurus, esp. A. catus; horn-press, a form of stamping-machine for closing the side seams of tin cans and boxes (Cent. Dict.); † horn-putter (tr. Vulgate cornupeta), an animal that butts or gores with the horn; horn-quicksilver, same as horn-mercury; horn-rimmed a., denoting spectacles having rims made of horn; horn-rims, horn-rimmed spectacles; horn-ring (see quot. 1928); horn-schist = hornslate; horn-shell (see quot.); † horn sickness, humorous for ‘jealousy due to being cuckolded’; horn-snake, (a) the Pine Snake or Bull Snake, Coluber melanoleucus; (b) the Red-bellied or Wampum Snake, Farancia abacura (local U.S.); horn speaker, a loud-speaker that incorporates a horn; horn spectacles = horn-rims; horn-tail, an insect of the family Uroceridæ, having a prominent horn on the abdomen of the male; † horn-thumb, a thumb protected by a thimble of horn such as was used by cutpurses; a pickpocket; horn-tip, the tip of a horn; a button or knob fixed on the point of a horn for a guard or ornament; horn-weed, (a) same as hornwort; (b) same as horn-plant; † horn-wood = hornbeam; horn-worm U.S., the larva of moths of the genus Protoparce, which includes P. sexta, a pest of tobacco, and P. quinquemaculata, which attacks the tomato and certain other vegetables; also, the larva of other hawkmoths of the family Sphingidæ.

1598 Florio, Acicula, a horne fish or *hornebacke.

1849 J. G. Dalyell Musical Memories Scotland v. 170 The Russian *horn-band consists of a multitude of performers whose concert comprehends the most simple music... Each instrument emits only a single note. Ibid. 171, I heard the Russian horn-band in this country, in the year 1833. 1938 Oxf. Compan. Mus. 441/1 In Russia..in the middle of the eighteenth century, proprietors of large estates established horn bands, much on the principle of our present day handbell ringing, each player being provided with one instrument of the appropriate size for the easy production of one note... The horns were straight ones (not circular).

1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 175/1 The *horn-bar which stands at the back of the top bed.

1635 W. Barriffe Mil. Discip. lxxv. (1643) 207 The *Horne Battell may be for the same occasion and use.

1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. iii. 51 No Temple but the wood, no assembly but *horne-beasts.

1652 Peyton Catastr. Ho. Stuarts (1731) 27 Silly Men, being *Horn-beaten.

1771 R. Warner Plant. Woodford. 114 Carpinus, Ostrya Ulmo similis..the Horn, or Hard⁓beam Tree, called in some places, the Horse-beech or *Horn-beech, from some likeness of the leaves to the Beech.

1776 J. Trumbull McFingal (Th.), Thought *horn-bugs bullets, or, through fears, Muskitoes took for musqueteers. 1846 Worcester cites Farm. Encycl. for Hornbug. 1869 Mrs. Stowe Oldtown Folks xxvii. 341 Youre saucy enough to physic a horn-bug. 1899 Mem. Amer. Folklore Soc. VII. 63 Horn-bugs, May-bees, May-flies, [etc.].

1793 Miss Seward Lett. (1811) III. 257 Beauties of *horn-cattle.

1898 Med. Chron. IX. News 39 Collateral branches..are structures of enormous importance..representing the most direct path of nerve communication between the sensory surface..and the ventral *horn cells. 1969 J. H. Green Basic Clin. Physiol. xx. 114/2 When the anterior horn cell sends a nerve impulse along the motor nerve, every muscle fibre in the motor unit contracts.

1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 12/2 *Horn centres..are small circular pieces of horn with three needle-points fixed in them.

1682 Wheler Journ. Greece vi. 446 The *Horncod-Tree or Keratia.

1650 Earl of Monmouth tr. Senault's Man bec. Guilty 306 To make lodgings for Owles, and to prepare habitations for *Horn-Coots. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Horn-coot, a name given by fowlers to the great Horn owl.

1872 Nicholson Palæont. 424 In neither case are the horns supported by bony *horn-cores.

1843 Knickerbocker XXI. 254 Hence it is as important to keep the bee-moth out of hives as the *horn-distemper out of cattle.

1838 Lytton Alice xi. ii, Self-conceit is *horn-eyed. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. vii, All his flunkeyhood, and horn-eyed dimness.

a 1668 Davenant Man's the Mast. Wks. (1673) 334 Dog! what will she say of thy *horn-face?

1669 Newest Acad. Compliments (N.), When..cuckolds forget to march to *Horn-fair. 1730 Poor Robin (N.), Now in small time comes on Horn-fair, Your horns and ladles now prepare. 1896 A. W. Tuer Hist. Horn-Bk. I. vii. 91 Horn Fair was held at least as early as the time of Henry III, and was continued annually until abolished in 1872.

1929 F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 69 *Horn-fisted, a seaman with hands hardened with work. 1961 F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 117 Horn-fisted, possessing tough hands, and a character to match, through hard work.

1802–3 tr. Pallas's Trav. (1812) II. 108 Its grain can with difficulty be perceived, and the whole is similar to *horn-flint.

1708 Kersey, *Horn-fly, an American Insect. 1897 Bailey Princ. Fruit-Growing 25 A comparatively harmless insect in France becomes the dreaded horn-fly in America.

c 1595 J. Dickenson Sheph. Compl. (1878) 11 The *hornfeet halfe-gods, with all the progeny rurall. 1627 Hakewill Apol. (1630) 279 Horn-foote horses.

1807 Pike Sources Mississ. (1810) ii. 156 note, I have seen the Wishtonwish, the rattle snake, the *horn frog..and a land tortoise all take refuge in the same hole.

1779 L. Charlton Hist. Whitby ii. 96 The *Hornegarth..seems to have been a certain stake and yether hedge, made up in the beginning of summer by all those in Whitby-Strand who held land of the Abbot. 1890 Hornes' Guide to Whitby 18 About the year 1315,..the Horngarth was made at the town of Whitby, with wood from the abbot's forest. 1894 J. C. Atkinson Memorials Old Whitby 50 There is no reason whatever for questioning the conclusion that the Horngarth service..must date back to pre-conquest times. 1928 Daily Express 24 May 3 What is the ceremony of ‘planting the Horngarth’?.. Driving in a hedge of stakes near Whitby Harbour to the sound of a horn, a custom dating to feudal times, to prevent cattle from straying into the harbour.

1909 Hawkins' Mech. Dict. 287/1 *Horn gate. 1910 E. L. Rhead Princ. & Pract. Ironfounding ix. 202 Horn gates are shown in Fig. 96... The tapering form and circular sweep allow of their removal without disturbance of the sand. 1934 Laing & Rolfe Man. Foundry Pract. vi. 126 The semi-circular in-gates are known as ‘horn-gates’.

1768 Ross Helenore 53 (Jam.) For now the lads are sleeping *horn hard. 1818 Scott Br. Lamm. xxv, The hearty shake of Mr. Girder's horn-hard palm.

a 1625 Fletcher Love's Cure ii. i, And Vulcan a limping *horn-head, for Venus his wife was a Strumpet.

1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., A horse is said to be *Horn-hipped when the tops of the two haunch bones appear too high.

1782 Kirwan in Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 22, 100 grs. of *horn lead, formed by precipitation, contain 72 of lead, 18 of marine acid, and 10 of water. 1812 Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. 397 Called horn lead by the old chemists.

1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iv. i. 63 Vertue is no *horne-maker: and my Rosalind is vertuous.

1803 R. C. Dallas Hist. Maroons I. iii. 70 One of Quao's men, a *hornman,..consented to accompany Captain Adair. 1844 Camp Refuge I. 126 The horn-men blew might and main. 1957 J. Kerouac On Road (1958) i. iv. 201 The hornman sat absolutely motionless. 1961 F. G. Cassidy Jamaica Talk viii. 166 Among the Maroons an important person was the horn⁓man, who gave signals with a horn or conch. 1972 Down Beat 16 Mar. 26/2 Farmer and Heath are two of the best-matched hornmen at work in the idiom today.

1776 Woulfe in Phil. Trans. LXVI. 619 The *horn-mercury..was intermixed with minute globules of quicksilver.

1645 Quarles Sol. Recant. xii. 58 The *horn-mouth Belman shal affright thy slumbers.

1598 Florio, Rinoceronte, a great beast or monster called a *horne nose.

c 1320 in Registr. Monast. de Winchelcumba (1892) 291 Et acquietabimus omnia predicta de assisis..wardepeni, hevedpeni, *hornpeni, et de omnibus servitiis secularibus.

1757 W. Thompson R.N. Advoc. 46 He will find the Legs, Shins..and *Horn Pieces of Oxen..pack'd into slight Casks.

1851 P. H. Gosse Nat. Sojourn Jamaica 39 The Mexican *Horn-poppy (Argemone), the West Indian Vervain (Stachytarpha),..and others. 1909 Chambers's Jrnl. July 445/2 The wild wallflower and horn-poppy..bloom in mid-air.

1798 Gaz. U.S. (Philad.) 3 Aug. (Th.), The company concluded to go, for the sake of seeing a *horn pout—when at last I drew one up—and behold! what was it, but a cat fish! 1832 Coll. New H. Hist. Soc. III. 87 On each side of their body and close to the head is a formidable weapon called a horn, and hence the name Horn-pout. 1910 Outlook 9 July 529 On the other side of the pond we met Sam Noyes, who was catching horn-pouts. 1943 B. Damon Sense of Humus 22 First he brought her a mess of horn pouts he had caught.

1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) II. 360 Varicella, crystalline and *horn-pox. 1877 Roberts Handbk. Med. (ed. 3) I. 153 Horn-pock or Wart-pock is a mild and abortive form, in which the pocks..shrivel and dry up on the 5th or 6th day.

1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 309 Leske in his voyage through Saxony often calls our stone [Hornslate] *hornporphyry.

1860 O. W. Holmes Elsie V. (1887) 26 Pond well stocked with *horn pouts. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 247 Memories of going after pond-lilies, of angling for horn-pouts.

1382 Wyclif Exod. xxi. 29 If an oxe be an *horn⁓putter.

1860 Dana Man. Min. 288 *Horn-quicksilver..Chloride of Mercury.

1894 Idler V. 452 Putting on a pair of *horn-rimmed eye-glasses, he read it through very carefully. 1901 Kipling Kim i. 10 The lama mounted a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles of Chinese work. 1922 Horn-rimmed [see beaver4]. 1923 Westm. Gaz. 12 Apr., A long-necked youth who was talking to a horn-rimmed female. 1931 R. Campbell Georgiad ii. 34 Women!.. Who mock at horn-rimmed spectacles. 1973 Times 16 June 1/4 The London strip club owner..heavily disguised with..a beard and thick, horn-rimmed spectacles..was approached by three detectives.

1927 Punch 20 Apr. 424/3 He removed his *horn-rims and began polishing them vigorously. 1959 Encounter July 59/1 In open-necked tennis shirt and heavy horn-rims. 1970 New York 16 Nov. 56/3 Junius glowers over his horn rims.

1928 Daily Tel. 16 Oct. 17 The *horn-ring, an attachment fitted on the steering wheel so that the motorist can sound his horn without lifting his hand from the circumference of the wheel. 1962 Which? Apr. (Suppl.) 74/1 Horn-ring assembly came adrift from steering wheel causing horn failure. 1973 J. M. White Garden Game 189, I..put my hand on the horn-ring, pushed it down and held it there. The noise sounded shattering.

1799 W. Tooke View Russian Emp. I. 151 Genuine *hornschist and jasper are here not to be found.

1883 Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. 209 Cerithium, or the ‘*Horn-shell’, has a turreted, many-whorled shell.

1613 in Crt. & Times Jas. I (1849) I. 238 Langley..is lately dead of the *horn sickness.

1688 J. Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVIII. 134 The *Horn-Snake is, as they say, another sort of deadly Snake. 1705 R. Beverley Virginia (1722) 260 They have likewise the Horn-Snake, so called from a sharp Horn it carries in its Tail. 1791 W. Bartram Carolina 276.

1928 L. S. Palmer Wireless Princ. & Pract. xi. 428 To reproduce such extremes without distortion is quite beyond the power of any existing *horn speaker. 1957 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 409/1 Horn speakers may be made quite efficient.

1893 Beerbohm Let. 19 Aug. (1964) 53 An old sexton too with *horn-spectacles. 1915 J. Buchan Salute to Adventurers xi. 163 Then he produced some papers, and putting on big horn spectacles, proceeded to instruct me in them. 1923 V. Woolf in Dial LXXV. 21 Mrs. Dalloway, remembering Kensington Gardens and the old lady in horn spectacles.

1884 J. S. Kingsley Stand. Nat. Hist. II. 507 The family Uroceridæ, or *horn-tails, includes insects which are closely allied to the saw-flies.

1594 Greene & Lodge Looking Glasse Wks. (Rtldg.) 138/2, I cut this from a new-married wife by the help of a *horn-thumb and a knife.

1808 T. Ashe Travels III. xxxiii. 89 They sell them furs and *horn tips, and receive in exchange ball powder, whiskey, tobacco, beads, ornaments, and blankets.

1884 Miller Plant-n., Horn-wort or *Horn-weed, Ceratophyllum demersum.

1731 Lunenburg (Mass.) Proprietors' Rec. (1897) 137 There making an Angle and runing East..68 rod to a smale *horn wood tree.

1676 T. Glover in Phil. Trans. XI. 635 A Worm that devours the leaf, called a *Horn-worm. 1763 T. Price in B. M. Carew Life 110 The planters prune off the suckers, and clear them of the Horn-worm twice a week. 1784 J. Smyth Tour U.S. II. 132 The other [species] is the horn-worm..of a vivid green colour, with a number of pointed excrescences or feelers, from his head like horns: these devour the [tobacco] leaf. 1850 Rep. U.S. Comm. Patents, Agric. 1849 459 The horn-worm is deposited on the smooth or upper surface of the leaf in an egg by the tobacco fly. 1962 Metcalf & Flint Destructive & Useful Insects (ed. 4) xiv. 656 The winter stage of the hornworms is very often spaded up or plowed out in the spring. Ibid. 657 In the tomato hornworm larvae the horn is black and there are eight stripes..; while in the tobacco hornworm the horn is red and there are seven oblique stripes. 1972 Sci. Amer. June 73/2 The caterpillars of Manduca sexta..are the hornworms that feed on tobacco and tomato plants.

▪ II. horn, v.
    (hɔːn)
    [f. horn n.]
    1. a. trans. To furnish with horns.

1694 R. L'Estrange Fables lxxviii. (1714) 95 Jupiter instead of Horning the Camel, order'd him to be Cropt.

    b. To tip, point, cover, etc. with horn.

1421–2 [see horning n. 2]. 1605 Eik to Seal of Cause of Skinners of Glasgow 5 Feb. (Jam. Suppl.), That nane..schaip or horne pointis, schaip or mak purssis.

    2. To ‘give horns to’: to cuckold.

c 1550 Pryde & Ab. Wom. 76 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 237 Some wyll not stycke..To horne you on everye side. 1608 Rowlands Humors Looking Glasse 30 Being married to a iealous asse, He vowes she hornes him. 1702 Steele Funeral 1, This Wench I know has play'd me false, And horn'd me in my Galants. 1823 New Monthly Mag. VIII. 343 Milk and water husbands—horned, hen-pecked, and abused by virago wives. 1952 S. Selvon Brighter Sun viii. 157 Look at yuh, yuh nasty dog! Yuh suspect she horning yuh! Yuh ain't have no shame? Dat poor gul don't even look at any odder man but you. 1970 ‘W. Haggard’ Hardliners i. 5 She'd given him a daughter and called it a day, horning him quite shamelessly.

    3. a. To butt or gore with the horns.

1599 Minsheu Sp. Dict., Cornear, to horne, to push with the horns. 1883 Pall Mall G. 12 Oct. 3/2 The cattle horn each other. 1891 Melbourne Argus 7 Nov. 13/5 A beast turned on me and horned my horse.

    b. fig. To push, as an ox with its horns. U.S.

1851 J. J. Hooper Widow Rugby's Husb. 69 You horned me off to get a chance to get gaming witnesses out of the way. 1881 Times (Philad.) 5 June (Th.), Mac Veagh is trying his best to horn Blaine out of the Cabinet herd, just as young buffalo bulls horn out the old ones.

    c. intr. To push or butt in (on or with). colloq. (orig. U.S.).

1912 C. Mathewson Pitching in a Pinch 213 Many of them try hard to ‘horn in’ with the men who have made good as Big Leaguers. 1924 C. E. Mulford Rustlers' Valley xviii. 201 Why did Chet horn in on Baldy's arrest? 1927 Bulletin 15 Apr. 12/3 ‘Well, your little playmate certainly queered things,’ he said. Thorn shrugged. ‘I'm sorry, chief; but I couldn't help it. You saw how he horned in.’ 1932 D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase xiv. 186 Glaisher might not like this horning in on his province. 1936 Wodehouse Laughing Gas xvi. 173, I suppose she felt she owed you something, after horning in on your big scene like that and trying to steal your publicity the way she did. 1939 Airman's Gaz. Dec., The lesson for today chicks is how to horn in on the radio racket. 1942 ‘B. J. Ellan’ Spitfire! xii. 61 Hurricanes had probably been chasing this Dornier when I had come in and attacked. Perhaps after all I was horning in on them! 1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard iv. 114 A proportion of detectives everywhere were at it; it was simply a question of finding them and horning in.

    4. Shipbuilding. To adjust (the frame of a ship) so as to be at right angles to the line of the keel.

c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 147 Standards..convenient to horn or square the frame. Ibid. 151 To Square, is to horn or form with right angles. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. xx. 442 Each frame being horned and plumbed in order to ensure the correctness of its position.

    † 5. Sc. Law. To put to the horn; to proclaim a rebel; to outlaw: cf. horning n. 4. Obs.

1592 Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1814) 551 (Jam.) That ye nor nane of yow charge, horne, poynd, nor trouble the said Johnne Schaw. 1702 E. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. xi. (1707) 142 Condemn'd, out-lawed, or Horned. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-cr. i. 3 They proclaim you to be Rebels to God, Horn you, as in Scotland.

    6. trans. and intr. To sound a horn; to signal to (someone) with a horn; to proclaim (something) loudly (as if) by sounding a horn.

1874 Hardy Far from Madding Crowd II. xii. 147 Jan meanwhile merging his..thoughts..in a song:—‘To⁓morrow-to-morrow!.. To-mor-row, to-mor—’. ‘Do hold thy horning, Jan! said Oak. Ibid. II. xxvii. 335 ‘I am afeard your labour in keeping it close will be throwed away,’ said Coggan... ‘Labe Tall's old woman will horn it all over parish in half an hour.’ 1892 G. Meredith Poems 77 He entreats..Compassion..For his fierce bugler horning onset. 1908 R. Broughton Mamma v. 45 Silence save of the nightly traffic roaring and ringing and horning past outside. 1923 W. de la Mare Riddle 209 The screech of its engine, horning up into the windless air. 1946 A. M. Walters Moondrop to Gascony xv. 199 We horned the small convoy to a stop as we approached Tanet.

Oxford English Dictionary