ˈhorse-play
† 1. Play in which a horse is used or takes part; theatrical horsemanship. Also transf. Obs.
| 1599 Massinger, etc. Old Law iii. ii, Horse-play at four⁓score is not so ready. a 1627 Middleton Mayor of Queenborough v. i, Second Play. We have a play wherein we use a horse. Sim. Fellows, you use no horse-play in my house. 1668 Dryden Evening's Love i. ii, Bel. They get upon their jennets, and prance before their ladies' windows... Wild. And this horseplay they call making love. |
2. Rough, coarse, or boisterous play, passing the bounds of propriety.
| 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1590) 9, I am a stranger, and cannot tel what your horse play meanes. 1700 Dryden Fables Pref. Wks. (Globe) 506 He [Collier] is too much given to horse-play in his raillery. 1749 Chesterfield Lett. (1792) II. clxxix. 166 No aukward overturns of glasses, plates, and salt-cellars; no horse-play. 1856 Masson Ess. iv. 121 Dryden's best comic attempts were but heavy horse-play. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Europe vi. (1894) 149 Explosions of animal spirits, bordering at times upon horse-play. |
Hence horse-playish a., given to horse-play.
| 1882 Daily News 22 Sept. 2/1 The younger men were somewhat horse-playish in their behaviour. |