HORN

horn

(noun) one of the bony outgrowths on the heads of certain ungulates

horn

(noun) any hard protuberance from the head of an organism that is similar to or suggestive of a horn

cornet, horn, trumpet, trump

(noun) a brass musical instrument with a brilliant tone; has a narrow tube and a flared bell and is played by means of valves

horn

(noun) an alarm device that makes a loud warning sound

horn, saddle horn

(noun) a high pommel of a Western saddle (usually metal covered with leather)

horn

(noun) a noisemaker (as at parties or games) that makes a loud noise when you blow through it

horn

(noun) a device having the shape of a horn; “horns at the ends of a new moon”; “the horn of an anvil”; “the cleat had two horns”

horn

(noun) a noise made by the driver of an automobile to give warning

horn

(noun) the material (mostly keratin) that covers the horns of ungulates and forms hooves and claws and nails

horn, tusk

(verb) stab or pierce with a horn or tusk; “the rhino horned the explorer”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

horn (countable and uncountable, plural horns)

(countable) A hard growth of keratin that protrudes from the top of the head of certain animals, usually paired.

Any similar real or imaginary growth or projection such as the elongated tusk of a narwhal, the eyestalk of a snail, the pointed growth on the nose of a rhinoceros, or the hornlike projection on the head of a demon or similar.

An antler.

(uncountable) The hard substance from which animals' horns are made, sometimes used by man as a material for making various objects.

Synonym: keratin

An object whose shape resembles a horn, such as cornucopia, the point of an anvil, or a vessel for gunpowder or liquid.

The high pommel of a saddle; also, either of the projections on a lady's saddle for supporting the leg.

(architecture) The Ionic volute.

(nautical) The outer end of a crosstree; also, one of the projections forming the jaws of a gaff, boom, etc.

(carpentry) A curved projection on the fore part of a plane.

One of the projections at the four corners of the Jewish altar of burnt offering.

(countable) Any of several musical wind instruments.

(countable, musical instrument) An instrument resembling a musical horn and used to signal others.

(countable, automotive) A loud alarm, especially one on a motor vehicle.

Synonyms: hooter, klaxon

(chiefly, sports) A sound signaling the expiration of time.

(countable) A conical device used to direct waves.

Synonym: funnel

(informal, musical instrument, countable) Generally, any brass wind instrument.

(slang, countable, from the horn-shaped earpieces of old communication systems that used air tubes) A telephone.

Synonyms: blower (UK), dog and bone (Cockney rhyming slang), phone

(uncountable, coarse, slang, definite article) An erection of the penis.

Synonyms: boner (US), hard-on, stiffy

(countable, geography) A peninsula or crescent-shaped tract of land.

Synonym: peninsula

(countable) A diacritical mark that may be attached to the top right corner of the letters o and u when writing in Vietnamese, thus forming ơ and ư.

(botany) An incurved, tapering and pointed appendage found in the flowers of the milkweed (Asclepias).

Usage notes

When used alone to refer to an instrument, horn can mean either hunting horn or French horn, depending on context. Other instruments are identified by specific adjectives such as English horn or basset horn.

Verb

horn (third-person singular simple present horns, present participle horning, simple past and past participle horned)

(transitive, of an animal) To assault with the horns.

(transitive) To furnish with horns.

(transitive, slang, obsolete) To cuckold.

Anagrams

• NRHO, Rohn

Etymology 1

Proper noun

the Horn

Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America.

The Horn of Africa, a peninsula of Africa which juts into the Arabian Sea.

Synonyms

• Horn peninsula

• Horn of Africa

• Horn region

Etymology 2

Proper noun

Horn (plural Horns)

A surname.

A former civil parish in Rutland, England, abolished in 2016 on the formation of Exton and Horn parish.

Anagrams

• NRHO, Rohn

Source: Wiktionary


Horn, n. Etym: [AS. horn; akin to D. horen, hoorn, G., Icel., Sw., & Dan. horn, Goth. haúrn, W., Gael., & Ir. corn, L. cornu, Gr. cheer, cranium, cerebral; cf. Skr. çiras head. Cf. Carat, Corn on the foot, Cornea, Corner, Cornet, Cornucopia, Hart.]

1. A hard, projecting, and usually pointed organ, growing upon the heads of certain animals, esp. of the ruminants, as cattle, goats, and the like. The hollow horns of the Ox family consist externally of true horn, and are never shed.

2. The antler of a deer, which is of bone throughout, and annually shed and renewed.

3. (Zoöl.)

Definition: Any natural projection or excrescence from an animal, resembling or thought to resemble a horn in substance or form; esp.: (a) A projection from the beak of a bird, as in the hornbill. (b) A tuft of feathers on the head of a bird, as in the horned owl. (c) A hornlike projection from the head or thorax of an insect, or the head of a reptile, or fish. (d) A sharp spine in front of the fins of a fish, as in the horned pout.

4. (Bot.)

Definition: An incurved, tapering and pointed appendage found in the flowers of the milkweed (Asclepias).

5. Something made of a horn, or in resemblance of a horn; as: (a) A wind instrument of music; originally, one made of a horn (of an ox or a ram); now applied to various elaborately wrought instruments of brass or other metal, resembling a horn in shape. "Wind his horn under the castle wall." Spenser. See French horn, under French. (b) A drinking cup, or beaker, as having been originally made of the horns of cattle. "Horns of mead and ale." Mason. (c) The cornucopia, or horn of plenty. See Cornucopia. "Fruits and flowers from Amalthæa's horn." Milton. (d) A vessel made of a horn; esp., one designed for containing powder; anciently, a small vessel for carrying liquids. "Samuel took the hornof oil and anointed him [David]." 1 Sam. xvi. 13. (e) The pointed beak of an anvil. (f) The high pommel of a saddle; also, either of the projections on a lady's saddle for supporting the leg. (g) (Arch.) The Ionic volute. (h) (Naut.) The outer end of a crosstree; also, one of the projections forming the jaws of a gaff, boom, etc. (i) (Carp.) A curved projection on the fore part of a plane. (j) One of the projections at the four corners of the Jewish altar of burnt offering. "Joab . . . caught hold on the horns of the altar." 1 Kings ii. 28.

6. One of the curved ends of a crescent; esp., an extremity or cusp of the moon when crescent-shaped. The moon Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns. Thomson.

7. (Mil.)

Definition: The curving extremity of the wing of an army or of a squadron drawn up in a crescentlike form. Sharpening in mooned horns Their phalanx. Milton.

8. The tough, fibrous material of which true horns are composed, being, in the Ox family, chiefly albuminous, with some phosphate of lime; also, any similar substance, as that which forms the hoof crust of horses, sheep, and cattle; as, a spoon of horn.

9. (Script.)

Definition: A symbol of strength, power, glory, exaltation, or pride. The Lord is . . . the horn of my salvation. Ps. xviii. 2.

10. An emblem of a cuckold; -- used chiefly in the plural. "Thicker than a cuckold's horn." Shak. Horn block, the frame or pedestal in which a railway car axle box slides up and down; -- also called horn plate.

– Horn of a dilemma. See under Dilemma.

– Horn distemper, a disease of cattle, affecting the internal substance of the horn.

– Horn drum, a wheel with long curved scoops, for raising water.

– Horn lead (Chem.), chloride of lead.

– Horn maker, a maker of cuckolds. [Obs.] Shak.

– Horn mercury. (Min.) Same as Horn quicksilver (below).

– Horn poppy (Bot.), a plant allied to the poppy (Glaucium luteum), found on the sandy shores of Great Britain and Virginia; -- called also horned poppy. Gray.

– Horn pox (Med.), abortive smallpox with an eruption like that of chicken pox.

– Horn quicksilver (Min.), native calomel, or bichloride of mercury.

– Horn shell (Zoöl.), any long, sharp, spiral, gastropod shell, of the genus Cerithium, and allied genera.

– Horn silver (Min.), cerargyrite.

– Horn slate, a gray, siliceous stone.

– To haul in one's horns, to withdraw some arrogant pretension. [Colloq.] -- To raise, or lift, the horn (Script.), to exalt one's self; to act arrogantly. "'Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn" Milton.

– To take a horn, to take a drink of intoxicating liquor. [Low]

Horn, v. t.

1. To furnish with horns; to give the shape of a horn to.

2. To cause to wear horns; to cuckold. [Obs.] Shak.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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