colt

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See also: Colt and colț

English

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A mare and colt.

Etymology

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From Middle English colt, from Old English colt, from Proto-Germanic *kultaz (plump; stump; thick shape, bulb), from Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (something round, pregnant belly, child in the womb), from *gel- (to ball up, amass). Cognate with Faroese koltur (colt, foal) Norwegian kult (treestump), Swedish kult (young boar, boy, lad). Related to child.

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): /kəʊlt/, [kɔʊlt], (also) /kɒlt/
  • (US) IPA(key): /koʊlt/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -əʊlt

Noun

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colt (plural colts)

  1. A young male horse.
    Coordinate term: filly
  2. A young crane (bird).
  3. (figuratively) A youthful or inexperienced person; a novice.
    • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], line 38:
      Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but / talk of his horse, and he makes it a great appropriation to / his own good parts that he can shoe him himself.
    1. (cricket, slang) A professional cricketer during his first season.
      • 1882, The Downside Review, volume 1, page 287:
        The bowling is more promising in the colts than in the eleven.
  4. (nautical, historical) A short piece of rope once used by petty officers as an instrument of punishment.
  5. (obsolete, slang) A weapon formed by slinging a small shot to the end of a somewhat stiff piece of rope.
  6. (biblical) A young camel or donkey.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  • (weapon): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Verb

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colt (third-person singular simple present colts, present participle colting, simple past and past participle colted)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To horse; to get with young.
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To befool.
  3. (intransitive) To frisk or frolic like a colt; to act licentiously or wantonly.
    • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande [], Dublin: [] Societie of Stationers, [], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland [] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: [] Society of Stationers, [] Hibernia Press, [] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:
      They shook off their bridles and began to colt.
  4. (obsolete, slang, transitive) To haze (a new recruit), as by charging a new juryman a "fine" to be spent on alcoholic drink, or by striking the sole of his foot with a board, etc.
    • 1849, The Lancet, page 53:
      We watched our opportunity, seized him, and, laying him across a chest, we colted him with a boot-jack until we nearly killed him, he at the time suffering from numerous boils in the nates; and for all this he obtained no redress!
    • 1923, Notes and Queries, page 153:
      [] his first appearance the jury duly "colted" him.

Synonyms

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See also

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References

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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French

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Noun

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colt m (plural colts)

  1. Colt (gun)

Further reading

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old English colt, from Proto-Germanic *kultaz.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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colt (plural coltes)

  1. A juvenile equid or camel; a colt.
  2. (derogatory, rare) A human child.

Descendants

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  • English: colt
  • Scots: colt, cout, cowt
  • Yola: caule, caul, cawl, kawle

References

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Old English

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Etymology

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From Proto-Germanic *kultaz (plump; stump; thick shape, bulb), from Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (something round, pregnant belly, child in the womb), from *gel- (to ball up, amass).

Noun

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colt m

  1. colt (a juvenile horse)

Declension

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Descendants

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