ˈhorse-flesh, horseflesh
1. The flesh of a horse, esp. as an article of food.
| c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 921 Horse flesshe, cher de cheual. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 421 They preferre horse-flesh before other meats, esteeming it stronger nourishment. 1699 W. Dampier Voy. II. i. ii. 31 The Horseflesh comes to Market at Cachao very frequently, and is as much esteemed as Beef. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 59 ¶6 They were reduced to eat Horse-Flesh. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 228 So early as the eighth of June horseflesh was almost the only meat which could be purchased. |
2. Living horses collectively, usually with reference to riding, driving, or racing.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 2161 What aylez you nowe?.. Wheþer euer your hertes for horse-fleshez abaytez? 1492 W. Paston in P. Lett. No. 929 III. 376 Hors flesche is of suche a price here that my purce is schante able to bye one hors. 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV 202 b, Herauldes spared no horseflesh in riding betwene the kyng and the erle. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 614 As for horse-flesh, I haue alwaies heard..That the breed of Italy passeth al others. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 157 ¶7 A Person..profoundly learned in Horse-flesh. 1791 ‘G. Gambado’ Ann. Horsem. iv. (1809) 85 As honest a man as any that deals in horse flesh. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xl, Anything that horse-flesh is capable of, a real good Oxford hack..will do. |
† 3. In technical uses: a. Surgery (see quot.).
| 1658 A. Fox Wurtz Surg. ii. xxvi. 175 The flesh holds the two ends of the [fractured] bone together, for that reason is it called Horse-flesh, because it is harder then other flesh. |
b. = dead horse: see horse n. 14.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. iii. 122/1 (Printing) If any Journeyman set down in his Bill..more Work then he hath done that Week, that surplusage is called Horse Flesh. |
c. (In full horse-flesh wood, horse-flesh mahogany.) The sabicu tree, Lysiloma Sabicu, a native of Bahama. (So called from its colour.)
| 1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 195 Horseflesh-wood, Rio Janeiro. Ibid. 813 Horse-flesh, or Bahama mahogany. Nassau. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 160 The timbers being of native hard wood (horse-flesh). |
4. attrib., usually in reference to the colour, a peculiar reddish bronze. horse-flesh ore, an ore of copper, bornite.
| 1530 Palsgr. 232/2 Horse flesshe colour. 1552 Inv. Ch. Goods Surrey in Surrey Archæol. Collect. (1869) IV. 97 Item iij dekyns of sylke one of blew another of grene and the other of horse flesh color. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. clxxii. 472 Some are called Carnations, others Cloue Gilloflowers,..some Pagiants or Pagion colour, Horseflesh, blunket, purple, white..Gilloflowers. 1787 Best Angling (ed. 2) 101 April..The Horseflesh Fly. This fly is taken all the month two hours before sun set till twilight. 1868 Dana Min. (ed. 5) 45 Crystalline varieties [of bornite] are found in Cornwall..called by the miners ‘horse-flesh ore’. |