horn n.2
1. in sexual contexts.
(a) the penis.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Taming of the Shrew IV i: curt.: Away, you three-inch fool! I am no beast. gru.: Am I but three inches? why, thy horn is a foot; and so long am I at the least. | |
| ‘A Mans Yard’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 10: It is a grafte Horne on a pretty head, / A staffe to make a Countess bedd. | |
 | in Fruit of That Forbidden Tree (1975) 62: Hark how my merry horn doth blow / Too high, too low. | |
| Penkethman’s Jests 16: In a Town where there had been a remarkable Slaughter of Maidenheads, and as great a Propagation of Horns. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Order of the Beggar's Benison and Merryland (1892) 70: To keep the horn not overworn/ Let sad December warn us. | |
| [ | | Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 46: A column of the whitest ivory, beautifully streak’d with blue veins [...] No horn could be harder, or stiffer; yet no velvet more smooth or delicious to the touch]. |
| ‘Peggy’s Triumph’ in Lummy Chaunter 88: The French Horns to gain Peggy, plaudits tried next, / But she, through their bungling performance much vex’d, / Declar’d, that all wives should cornute those men, / Who make such long rests, or pop in now and then. | |
| ‘Toasts And Sentiments’ in Nobby Songster 47: May our horn always be in the que [sic] for c---. | |
| Cythera’s Hymnal [as 1732]. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Dead Bird (Sydney) 13 Sept. 2/4: ‘Now, butcher, I want some meat, and give it to me good [...] don’t give me the neck.’ [...] ‘Mind, Miss P., that he don’t give you the horns and hoofs’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Bull Cow Blues’ 🎵 Long as your right arm / Lord if you play with my horn baby / Make you break up your happy home. | |
| in Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 40: Right beneath the petticoat I blowed her with my horn. | |
| Down in the Holler 104: The noun horn means penis. | |
| Saved Scene iii: ’Aving trouble with yer ’orn? | |
| Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 209: A bulge in his fly where the randy old horn hadn’t quite subsided. | |
| in Graffiti 108: Young bucks with short horns, step up close. | |
| Patriot Game (1985) 52: Trying to figure out how he’s gonna get his horn up the ass of that cute little eighteen-year-old bank robber. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Salesman 299: D’ye like ridin’, Homer? I’d say y’do. I’d say y’do, all right. I’d say y’ve a horn on yeh like a rhino, Homer, do yeh? | |
| Get Your Cock Out 84: Then she carried on blowing Mincey’s cheesy horn. | |
| Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 138: What he wanted to talk about did have horns — but only the type of horn you keep in your trousers. |
(b) sexual excitement or lust; also in fig. use, affection.
| Love for Love V i: She’s mad for a husband, and he’s horn mad, I think, or they’d ne’er make a match together. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy V 72: But ’tis without reason, for he that is born, / Under such a Planet, is Heir to the Horn. | |
| ‘Nursery Rhymes’ in Pearl 4 Oct. 32: E’en a boy’s white, fat bum / Could not make him come, / But an old man’s piles gave him the horn. | |
| ‘Experiences of a Cunt Philosopher’ in Randiana 83: The excitement of a ‘horn’ which I now had the satisfaction of knowing could be relieved without quitting the mansion. | |
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 25: Avoir vent en poupe = to be sexually excited; ‘to have the horn’. | |
| Pleasure Bound ‘Afloat’ (1969) 231: He tried to sleep — well, when he had overcome his Horn [...] he did. | |
| Ulysses 256: Come on to blazes, said Blazes Boylan, going. Lenehan gulped to go. – Got the horn or what? he said. | |
| letter 22 Aug. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 107: Mastigophily is I suppose whiploving [...] That is the sight of a whip gives you the horn. | |
| ‘Beaufort’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of the RAAF 30: The Beaufighters say that we give them the horn. | |
| letter 27 Feb. in Leader (2000) 271: Maupassant could get the horn at will. | |
| Sir, You Bastard 144: How many poor sods have died of the horn up here, Jane? | |
| Maledicta IX 144: Or perhaps they work out of an escort service or male call-house (bullring camp, hardware shop, the latter emphasizing the necessary horn, U.S. hard-on). | |
| Guardian Media 1 Nov. 3: The DJ most likely to give you the horn. | |
| Teenage Dirtbag Years 13: Blonde hair, amazing bod [...] we’re talking perma-horn material. | |
| Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘Call an escort if you’ve got the horn’. | |
| ‘Fjord of Killary’ in New Yorker 24 Jan. 🌐 ‘She still excites me [...] It’s been twenty-eight years, and I still get a horn on me when I see that bitch climb a stairs’. | |
| (con. 1980s) Skagboys 251: Sets up the horn at the base ay the baws, always as good sign. | |
| Blood Miracles 93: ‘Dan has some sort of horn for you I’ve never understood, boy. So maybe he can’t bring himself to suspect you’. | |
| Seven Demons 236: ‘They are buying and selling pork belly and I do not know one fucking thing about what turns on their pork belly horn’. | |
| Rules of Revelation 170: ‘My cousin has the horn for shit like that [i.e. historical minutiae]’. |
(c) (US) a womanizer; a sexual athlete.
| Gleaner (Manchester, NH) 1 July n.p.: This covey in company with another horn [...] says let me cross over [...] the street and kiss that woman. | |
| et al. CUSS. |
(d) an erection.
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 7: Affiler le bandage. To have an erectio penis; ‘to get the horn’. | |
| Nocturnal Meeting 77: I had got a gigantic horn again. | |
| letter to Nora Barnacle 3 Dec. in Ellman Sel. Letters (1976) 182: Perhaps the horn I had was not big enough for you for I remember that you [...] murmured tenderly ‘Fuck up, love! Fuck up, love!’. | |
| Ulysses 525: Haw, haw, have you the horn? | |
| ‘She Went for a Ride in a Morgan’ in Bawdy Ballads XXXVI: There wasn’t a prick she would scorn, / She gave every man an erection: / The more vulgar-minded say ‘horn’. | |
| Diaries (1986) 24 Mar. 123: Tills became amorous again. [...] I got the horn. | |
| (con. 1950s) Spend, Spend, Spend (1978) 44: Oh, I’m getting a horn on just thinking about what I could do to you. | |
| You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 61: Les took one bite and nearly got a horn. | |
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 41: But on that Resurrection morn, (3) / The dirty old bugger still got a horn. | |
| (con. 1970) Danti-Dan in McGuinness Dazzling Dark (1996) I iv: I have an awful horn on me. | |
| Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] Mr Wobbly was screaming in his ear and he had a horn that hard you could have cracked walnuts on it; and Les had to go off. | |
| Grits 92: Orny as fuck, mun, I yam, been on-a fuckin billy all dey like an that ulweys gives me-a orn. | |
| Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] Les had a horn that hard you could have shattered roof tiles on it. | |
| Braywatch 158: I’ve suddenly got a horn on me like a wok handle. |
2. (US) a drink [SE horn, a form of drinking vessel].
| Adventures of John Wetherell (1954) 258: We [...] took [...] a stiff horn of Cogniac. | |
| Life in London (1869) 140: Let us fortify our stomachs with a slice or two of hung beef, and a horn or so of humming stingo! | |
| Life and Adventures of Dr Dodimus Duckworth II 175: He had not even the excuse of drinking in good company, to say nothing of sleigh-rides [...] and such like occasions for taking an extra horn. | |
| Waggeries and Vagaries 17: Here’s jest a leetle horn a piece in the bottle – let’s licker one more round. | |
| N.O. Weekly Delta 23 Nov. p.1 in Humor of the Old Deep South (1936) n.p.: We adjourned over to the nearest dead-fall, tuck a whoppin’ horn of Ball Face. | |
| Sut Lovingood’s Yarns 221: He wanted a ho’n bad. | |
| Wanderings of a Vagabond 299: ‘Everything about the place is bad, excepting this brandy,’ I added, seizing the decanter, pouring myself out another horn, and tossing it down my throat. | |
| Ft Worth Dly Gaz. (TX) 29 Aug. 6/4: A red-faced loafer struggling blindly around with a couple of horns of the stuff in his inside. | |
| in Fools of Fortune 532: I earned a dollar in that town [...] And took a little horn. | |
| ‘An Eastern Kentucky Dialect Word-List’ in DN III vii 538: horn, n. a dram of whiskey. | |
| Shadow of a Gunman Act II: He’s too far gone in the horns for that now. Sure no one ud mind him takin’ a pint or two, if he’d stop at that, but he won’t. | |
| ‘Boonville Lang. of N.C.’ in AS XXXIX:4 281: Horn, n. A drink. |
3. the nose.
| Drama in Pokerville 94: What with the blowing of noses [...] there was the most awful [...] horn-blowing that ever Judge Frill had listened to. | |
| N.Y. Clipper 24 Sept. 4/5: What with the blowing of noses [...] there was the most awful [...] horn-blowing that Judge Frill had listened to. | |
| Criminal Life (NY) 19 Dec. n.p.: [I]f you value that big gin-blomossed horn of yours. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY)10 June 2/1: Although Levy and Gilmore were not there [i.e. at a prize-fight] there were big ‘blows on the horn’. | |
| You Know Me Al (1984) 146: Then I come with my fast ball right past his nose and I bet if he had not of ducked it would of drove that big horn of hisn clear up in the press box. | |
| ‘The Big Umbrella’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 561: A big horn indicates character, and a moustache is good luck. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Garden of Sand (1981) 28: Sweat ran down the old man’s big nose [...] He had a horn like the handle of a Frontier Colt. | |
| (con. 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 11: His reading glasses from Woolworth’s perched on the end of his big horn. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 192: This big horn of mine is working like it was on bonus. What a fucking stink. |
4. an ear; in phr. between the horns, in the centre of the forehead.
| Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 24: I [...] grabbed the gun and pointed it at him right between the horns and pulled the trigger. | |
| Circus of Dr Lao 87: One of the Chink non-coms would come up with a big Mauser pistol an’ let him have it between the horns. | |
| Pimp 227: It took maybe a minute for me to have all their horns to receivers. | |
| Choirboys (1976) 286: Was ready to bust a cap between his fuckin horns. |
5. (orig. jazz) as a wind instrument.
(a) any kind of wind instrument.
| Your Broadway & Mine 20 Nov. [synd. col.] [S]language [...] in use among musicians. ‘Horn’ is the designation for any of the wind instruments. | |
| ‘A Musician’s Word List’ in AS XII:1 46: horn. Any wind instrument, whether reed or brass. | |
| (con. 1940s) Autobiog. (1968) 127: I wished had studied a horn; but I never had been exposed to one. |
(b) a trombone.
| ‘The Sl. of Jazz’ in AS XII:3 181: horn. Trombone (loosely, any brass instrument). |
(c) a trumpet.
| (con. 1948) Flee the Angry Strangers 33: I got the horn stashed by Paddy Jenks, he likes I should play when he’s goofin. | |
| Owning Up (1974) 83: Louis [...] handed it back with the words: ‘You want to get the saveloys out of your horn, man!’. |
6. (US) a telephone; esp. in phr. on the horn; cite 2002 refers to a walkie-talkie.
| Slanguage Dict. 28: On the horn – on the telephone. | |
| Beat Generation 41: That’s Dave on the horn. | |
| Cannibals 215: I’ll call you on the horn in a few days. | |
| Inner City Hoodlum 214: I’ll get on the horn, Jim. | |
| Under Cover 236: I’m going to get on the horn [...] Just call everyone I know. | |
| Point of Origin (1999) 205: I’m on the horn. | |
| At End of Day (2001) 80: We get on the horn tomorrow. | |
| ‘The Target’ Wire ep. 1 [TV script] You got the uniforms on the horn? | |
| Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 14: Look, doll, when you grab the horn—. | |
| Lush Life 56: When you get your boss on the horn, tell him that the chiefs are already all over this . | |
| The Force [ebook] He gets on the horn to Sykes. | |
| ‘Broken’ in Broken 40: Landreau gets on the horn. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 63: ‘Mom — I’m on the horn with Marilyn Monroe’. |
In compounds
an attractive woman.
| Nice Night’s Entertainment (1981) 189: Of course I love you, horn-bag. | |
| Traveller’s Tool 7: Looking up the leather mini of the spunky little hornbag. | |
| Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 17: hornbagn. An extremely attractive woman, ie. one who gives you the horn. | |
| Kath & Kim [Living TV (Aus.)] I’m not a housewife. I’m a hornbag! | |
| Guardian G2 10 May 7: Kim Craig is a ‘hornbag’ and she knows it. | |
| Scrublands [ebook] ‘And that hornbag single mum, hey? Wouldn’t mind a bit of that myself’. |
1. an involuntary erection.
| [ | | Spy on Mother Midnight III 24: It was in vain to dissemble any longer, the gentleman/ below slairs slood stoutly for his prerogative, and inform'd Sally, with what species of the Cholick her bed-fellow was afficted]. |
| (ed.) Jemmy Twitcher’s Jests 52: He told Mr Foote the motion of the coach had a remarkable effect upon him, and given him a violent fit of the Horn-Cholic. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Horn cholick, a temporary priapism. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
2. male sexual frustration.
| Down in the Holler 104: Unsatisfied sexual desire in the male is called either stone-ache or horn colic. |
see separate entries.
a pornographic film.
| ‘Terms Used in a Men’s Dormitory’ in AS XLII:4 228: cock movie, n. phr.; horn movie, n. phr. An erotic ‘dirty’ moving picture. |
a brothel.
| Hell’s Angels (1967) 93: Perhaps Manolete [...] suffered from terrible haemorrhoids as a result of long nights in Spanish horn parlours. |
an aphrodisiac.
| Experience 309: Asked by the doctor if he would like to try a course of what Girl, 20 calls ‘horn pills’ (or ur-Viagra). |
celery.
| Spitalfields Life 18 Nov. 🌐 Celery is ‘horn root,’ because years ago they thought that celery was an aphrodisiac. And they said it gave you the horn. |
a fellator or fellatrix.
| Get Your Cock Out 31: The cloakroom boy [...] pushed his luck and asked Dandy to fist him. Dandy obliged the cheeky little AC/DC horn smoker. |
fellatio.
| Get Your Cock Out 57: Does my penchant for hornsmoking and being slammed up the dirtbox bother you at all? |
In phrases
(US) a phr. used after someone has blown their nose noisily.
| ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:vi 424: blow your horn if you don’t sell fish. Said to anyone who blows his nose vigorously. |
(US) to excite sexually.
| Cat Man 208: ‘Ain’t fair, is it, Chief, to horn you up like that?’ gasped the sword-swallower. |
in a state of sexual excitement.
| Bugger’s Alphabet in (1979) 42: N is the noble who died on the horn. | |
| Ladies’ Man (1985) 228: I remember when I had you on the horn, Thursday night. |
of a man, to engage in sexual activity, esp. after a period of abstinence.
| Current Sl. II:1 6: Scrape one’s horns, v. To indulge in heavy petting after a lapse of sexual activities. | |
| Great Santini (1977) 300: I know all you boys got the hotpants cause I was young myself and I had to cut my horns like anyone else. |
to fellate.
| Get Your Cock Out 94: The little girlyboy ain’t gonna smoke no more horn. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
a cutpurse.
| Cambyses in Dodsley Old Plays (1875) IV 235: But cousin, because to that office ye are not like come, / Frequent your exercises, a horne on your thumbe, / A quick eye, a sharp knife [F&H]. | |
| Bartholomew Fair II iii: I mean a child of the horn-thumb, a babe of booty, boy, a cut-purse. | |
| Gusman of Amsterdam 258: [H]e began to look for Money in his old Breeches; but much mistaken for some of the Horn-thumb Gang had done that Office for him. |
In phrases
see separate entry.
see under diamond n.
(US) to pressurize.
| Thief 31: This other dude [...] got the horn to him and angled the price up two bills. |
(US) a general phr. of dismissal.
| Daily Pennant (St. Louis) 9 Sept. n.p.: A jury case too, with lawyers for trimmings, / And a plaintiff who looked so forlorn; / For his battered arm he bore in a sling, / But I spec it was all in a horn. | |
| Knickerbocker (N.Y.) lI (Feb.) 145: That is how I was converted ; was it, think you, in a horn? | |
| Wash. Eve. Star 26 Aug. n.p.: I have mentioned before the innumerable comforts – in a horn – of the old White Sulphur Springs [F&H]. | |
| Bill Arp 56: Methinks I see them, as in a horn, crowding the road, and swimming the rivers, and climbing the mountains, exclaiming with majestic fury, We come, we come, – ye have called us long, / We come o’er the mountings – in a horn. | |
| Bill Arp’s Peace Papers 78: ‘I bleeve I’ll unpack,’ sed one, ‘dingd if I’m afeerd of a blu taled fly; I’m goin to set down and be esy.’ ‘In a horn,’ sed I. | |
| County Paper (Oregon, MO) 15 Sept. 2/6: Such phrases as [...] trim one’s jacket [...] in a horn [...] that’s a whopper. |