horn v.1
to cuckold.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Play of Weather in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 101: gentleman: I am no horner, knave! I will thou know it. merry report: I thought ye had [been], for when ye did blow it, / Heard I never whoreson make horn so go. | |
| Pryde and Abuse of Women line 73: And loke well, ye men, to your wives trycksynes [...] Or some wyll not stycke, or it be longe, To horne you on everye side. | |
| Du Bartas (1605) 152: The adulterous Sargus doth not only change Wiues euery day, [...] Could not suffice his ranging appetites, Courting the Shee Goates on the grassie shore / Would horn their Husbands that had horns before. | |
 | Humor’s Looking Glass 22: Besides, shee is as perfect chast as faire, But being married to a jealous asse, He vowes shee horns him. | |
| Well met Gossip B: Euery night they sleepe in Horne-worke caps. | |
| Love’s Mistress V i: By our crests we should be Cousins, for we are both horn’d. | |
| Mercurius Fumigosus 29 13–20 Dec. 225: Take an old Host, and tie him to the Post, and up with my Hostesse heels, or send him drunk to bed, and then horn his head, and spin till his Daughter reels. | |
| The Rump IV i: Darst thou Horn him again. | |
| Maronides (1678) VI 6: More Pander he, with such despite, / To horn the Royal House of Creet. | |
| London Spy IV 92: May his long Bills / Be never paid; / And may his Help-mate Horn-him. | |
| Tender Husband I i: I’ll lay my life I’ll horn you. | |
| ‘Gin ’Ere I’se in Love’ in Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 195: Oh Gin I’se had sic a Wanton as this, / She’d horn me and scorn me. | |
| Beau’s Misc. 55: May Rats and Mice Consume his Shreds [...] May Nits and Lice, Infest his Beds [...] And may his Help-Mate horn him. | |
| ‘The Cuckold’ Tom-Tit Pt 3 2: Caesar and Pompey were both of them Horned. | |
| Choice Spirits Museum 36: [as cit. 1720]. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Revenge II ii: Would ev’ry husband follow your example, / And take upon himself his own adorning [...] No more would stand the ancient trade of horning. | |
| ‘The Great Plenipotentiary’ Collection of Songs (1788) 43: [She] had horn’d the dull brows of her worshipful spouse / ’Till they sprouted like Venus’s myrtle. | |
| ‘The Lace Merchant Taken . . .’ in I (1975) 150: For horning of the farmer he paid a 1000 pounds. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Spirit of Irish Wit 270: [I]nstead of ‘Honoured sir,’ he unfortunately wrote ‘Horned sir’. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Grand Master canto vii 199 line 10: (She) smil’d, declaring that she scorn’d him, / (She might have added that she’d horn’d him). | |
| Age (London) 15 May 5/3: There's Arthur the queer, erst who horn'd my Lord Deerhurst, / And Lord Arthur Bum too, who gets up a play. | |
| ‘The Bamboozling Barber’ in Cove in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 229: In her arms I soon will find harbour, / I’ll horn the old buck, I declare. | |
| ‘Cuckoldom’ in Fake Away Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 281: And his condition is not to be scorn’d, / Caesar and Pompey were both of them horn’d. | |
| ‘Adultery’s the Go!’ in Pearl 3 Sept. 25: Horn’d cuckolds were mad raging bulls, / A century ago; / Now, they’e tame oxen, silly fools, / For Adultery’s the go. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Down in the Holler 104: The noun horn means penis, not testicles. The verb means to cuckold. | |
| Notes for Gloss. of Barbadian Dial. 62: A correspondent mentions she heard quite a small boy say to his sweetheart who had been flirting with another youngster ‘So you horning me then!’. |
In phrases
(W.I.) to be unfaithful to one’s husband, wife or lover by having sex with or dating another person.
| Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |