horny, a. (n.)
(ˈhɔːnɪ)
[f. horn n. + -y.]
A. adj.
1. a. Consisting of horn; of a texture resembling that of horn; corneous.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. v. (Bodl. MS.), Foure [webbes] bene in the formest partye [of the eye]..the thredde de cornia, horny. 1530 Palsgr. 316/1 Horny, made or stored of hornes. 1615 tr. De Monfart's Surv. E. Indies 20 With a kind of hornie rinde. 1671 Milton P.R. ii. 267 Him thought, he..saw the Ravens with their horny beaks Food to Elijah bringing euen and morn. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VI. 253 These eggs [of the ray] are covered with a tough horny substance. 1864 H. Spencer Illustr. Univ. Progr. 398 Amœba-like creatures, massed together in a frame-work of horny fibres, constitute Sponge. |
† b. horny gate (port), the gate of horn: see
gate n.1 5.
Obs.| 1592 Sylvester Tri. Faith i. i, Sad Morpheus, entring in Through's horny gate. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 17/1 Dametas dream'd he saw his wife at sport, And found that sight was through the horny port. |
† c. horny coronet, humorously put for ‘cuckold's horns’.
Obs.| 1688 Crowne Darius Prol., He dubs this man a knave, a coxcomb that, Gives any brow a horny coronet. |
2. transf. a. Callous or hardened so as to be horn-like in texture.
| 1693 Tate in Dryden's Juvenal (1697) 370 Who, wanting Weapons, clutch their horny Fists. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 172 Till his hard horny Fingers ake with Pain. 1875 Hamerton Intell. Life v. ii. 177 It is observed that horny hands, in the colonies, get gold into them sooner than white ones. 1884 W. C. Smith Kildrostan i. i. 84 Bronzed with weather, and horny of hand. |
b. Sexually excited; lecherous. (Chiefly used of a man.)
slang. Cf. horn n. 5 c.
| 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang I. 476/1 Horny, lecherous, in a state of sexual desire, in rut. 1918 Dialect Notes V. 25 Horny, amative. 1949 H. Miller Sexus (1969) v. 104 Her thick, gurgling voice saying..: ‘Get it in all the way{ddd}please, please do... I'm horny.’ Ibid. x. 239 When I look at this thing I get horny again. 1965 J. L. Herlihy Midnight Cowboy (1966) ii. v. 120 You are a gorgeous-lookin' piece, Cass. Gets a guy all horny just lookin' at you. 1968 M. Richler Cocksure xi. 63 When..he used to make a habit of watching the hockey games..he always felt horny. 1970 T. Lewis Jack's Return Home 43 The talk'd got filthier. It'd made me very horny. 1971 Black World Oct. 65/1 Ain't that the horny bitch that was grindin with the blind dude. |
3. Semi-opaque like horn.
| 1652 Bp. Hall Invis. World i. v, The [angels] do not, as we mortals are wont, look through the dim and horny spectacle of senses. 1830 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 75 So affected as to be at least horny, if not in a slight degree transparent. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 202 The media afforded by expressed oils become horny or semi-opaque. |
4. Bearing, having, or abounding in horns or horn-like projections.
| 1530 [see 1]. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 89 So it appeareth by her hornie head. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Horny, abounding in horns. It is applied to a sample of barley, from which the awns have not been properly separated in the process of winnowing. |
5. Consisting of beasts' horns.
| a 1732 Gay Birth of Squire (T.), The horny spoils that grac'd the wall. |
6. Of sounds: Like that of a horn.
| 1888 P. H. Fitzgerald Fatal Zero ix. 48 When they open their full lips out streams the twang, nasal and horny! |
7. Comb., parasynthetic, as
horny-browed,
horny-eyed,
horny-fisted,
horny-handed,
horny-hoofed,
horny-knuckled,
horny-nibbed adjs.;
horny-head (in full
hornyhead chub)
U.S., a North American cyprinid fish,
Nocomis biguttatus; occasionally also used for
Campostoma anomalum, a smaller cyprinid.
| 1916 Joyce Portrait of Artist iii. 158 Goatish creatures with human faces, *horny browed, lightly bearded and grey as indiarubber. |
| 1912 W. Owen Let. 2 July (1967) 148 A bushy-browed and *horny-fisted blacksmith's assistant. |
| 1859 J. Brown Rab & F. 8 That *horny-handed, snell, peremptory little man. 1892 Spectator 10 Dec. 847/2 He must have employed indirectly tens of thousands of the horny-handed. |
| 1882 Jordan & Gilbert Synopsis Fishes N. Amer. 212 C[eratichthys] biguttatus..*Horny Head; River Chub; Jerker. 1933 Amer. Speech VIII. 50/1 Horny-head... A chub-like fish with short, horny protuberances on the scales, those on top of the head being largest. 1963 P. A. Parsons Outdoor Life Compl. Bk. Freshwater Fishing iv. 45 Hornyhead chubs, excellent bait for members of the pike family, are durable on the hook. 1965 A. J. McClane Standard Fishing Encycl. 891/2 Stoneroller. Campostoma anomalum. Also known as hornyhead and knottyhead, it is a brownish-olive minnow with a brassy luster. |
| 1513 Douglas æneis vii. xiii. 179 From the tempil of Diane euermo Thir *horny hovit horssis bene debarrit. |
| 1812 W. Tennant Anster F. ii. xxxvii, The *horny-knuckl'd kilted Highlandman. |
| 1880 Tennyson Battle of Brunanburh xiv, The *horny-nibb'd raven. |
B. n. 1. Usually
Auld Hornie: A name for the devil.
Sc.| 1785 Burns Addr. to Deil i, O thou! whatever title suit thee, Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie. 1806 J. Black Falls of Clyde i. iv, I'm sure I wish them a' in hell Wi' Hornie their auld father there to dwell. 1840 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) V. 44 As ‘old Hornie’, or some⁓body I took for him, once said to me. |
2. A policeman.
slang.| 1753 J. Poulter Discoveries (ed. 2) 39 A Horney,..a Constable. 1789 G. Parker Life's Painter xiv. 116 There's no horneys, traps, scouts, nor beak-runners amongst them. 1856 J. Strang Glasgow & its Clubs 187 Town officers..were then better known by the appellation of red-coat officers or hornies. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 160 Can't blame them after all with the job they have especially the young hornies. |
3. A cow; a bullock.
Sc. and
Austral. slang.| 1808 A Scott Poems 81 Bedown the green the hornies rowt. 1879 G. Macdonald Sir Gibbie I. xiv. 194 Hornie—so named, indeed, because of her readiness to use the weapons with which Nature had provided her..was in fact a malicious cow. 1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Jan. 25 Polled cattle graded better than the hornies. 1938 X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) xx. 273 Hornies, or beasts with ingrowing horns. 1943 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 40 Horney-steerer, a bullock driver. |