horse-leech 
2. A horse-doctor, veterinary surgeon, or far- 
rier. 3. An inveterate beggar or dun ; an ex- 
tortionate person; one who makes incessant 
demands or drafts upon another. 
The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. 
Prov. xxx. 15. 
We'll all join, and hang upon him like so many horse- 
leeches. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 1. 
horseleek (h6rs'lek), n. A plant, the bullock's- 
eye. 
horse-litter (hors'lifer), n. A kind of wheel- 
less carriage or palanquin hung on poles be- 
tween two horses, going one behind the other. 
The king [Edward I.], now weak and sick, followed in a 
horse-litter. Dickens, Child's Hist, Eng., xvi. 
horse-load (hors'lod), n. [< ME. horselode; < 
horsei + load.} A load for a horse; hence, a 
large quantity or number. 
Tonnes and barelles th' coraeth in carte sholde custome 
a peny ; an horselode, an halpeny. 
Emjlish Gilds (E. E. T. S.), p. 358. 
They have, like good sumpters, laid ye down their horse- 
load of citations and fathers at your door. 
Milton, Church-Government, 
horse-loaft (hdrs'lof), . [< ME. horselof; < 
horse^- + loaf. Cf. horse-bread.} A large loaf 
composed of beans and wheat ground together, 
used for feeding horses. 
Thath all Bakers of the said Cite, and suburbis of the 
same, make butt ij. horselofys to a peny, and of clene 
beanys. English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), p. 387. 
Oh that I were in my oat-tub, with a horscloaf; 
Something to hearten me. 
Fletcher and Shirley, Night-Walker, v. J. 
horse-lockt,. Ahobble;afetlock. Seefetlock,S. 
Horse-locks nor chains 
Shall hold her from me. 
Fletcher and Rowley, Maid in the Mill, ill. 1. 
horse-lot (hors'lot), . A lot or pasture for 
horses. 
horsely (hors'li), a. and adv. [< ME. horsly; < 
horse 1 + -ly.~] Having the qualities most ap- 
proved in a horse; in the manner of a good 
horse. [Obsolete or rare.] 
Therwith so hor4y, and so quik of eye, 
As it a gentil Poileys courser were. 
Chaucer, Squire's Tale, L 186. 
horse-mackerel (h6rs'mak*'er-el), n. One of 
several fishes more or less nearly related to the 
mackerel, (a) The common tunny. (U. 8.] (i) The 
scad or cavally, Caranx vulgaris. [Eng. and New Zea- 
land.] (c) The jurel, Caranx pisquetus. [North Carolina, 
U. S.] (d) The blueflsh, Pomatomus saltatrix. [Rhode 
Island, U. S.] (e) The black candle-fish, Anoplopoma fim- 
bria. See Anoplopomidce, and cut under candle-Jish. [Pu- 
get Sound. ] (jf) The Callfornlan hake or merluccio, Mer- 
lucius product us. [Sequely, California, U. S.) (s)Theten- 
pounder, Elops murus. See cut under Elops. [Fort Ma- 
con, North Carolina, U. S.J 
horseman (hors'man), H. ; pi. horsemen (-men). 
[< ME. horsman; (horse^ + man.} 1. A rider 
on horseback; one who uses or manages a horse 
or horses. 
Horsemen, my skill in horsemanship advance ; 
Townsfolk, my strength. 
Sir P. Sidney, Sonnet (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 479). 
He knew her, as a horseman knows his horse. 
Tennyson, Enoch Arden. 
2. A soldier who serves on horseback. 
Most valiant and hardy, 
With horsemen and footmen 
March'd towards the town. 
Winning of Cales (Child's Ballads, VII. 126). 
3. A book-name of a scisenoid fish of the genus 
Eques. 4f. One of sundry tattlers or sandpip- 
ers, scolopacine birds of the genus Totanus; a 
gambet; a chevalier. 5. A kind of domestic 
pigeon Green-legged horseman, a bird, Totanus 
glottis; the greenshank. See cut under grcenxhank. 
Horseman's hammer. Same as martel-de-fer. Red- 
legged horseman, a bird, Totanus calidris; the red- 
shank. 
horsemanship (hdrs'man-ship), n. [< horseman 
+ -ship.} The management of horses; spe- 
cifically, the art of riding or controlling horses ; 
equestrian skill. See manege. 
To turn and wind a flery Pegasus, 
And witch the world with noble horsemanship. 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., iv. 1. 
Cutting out cattle, next to managing a stampeded herd 
at night, is that part of the cowboy's work needing the 
boldest and most skilful horsemanship. 
T. Roosevelt, Hunting Trips, p. 16. 
horse-marine (h6rs'ma-ren), n. One of an 
imaginary corps of mounted marine soldiers ; 
hence, a person out of his element and unfit 
for his place, as such a soldier would be on 
board ship: also humorously employed in a lit- 
eral sense. [Slang.] 
This old sea-dog organized a body of horse-marines to 
patrol the shore. Adm. Porter, N. A. Rev., CXXVII. 225. 
horse-marshalt (h6rs'mar // shal), . A man- 
ager of horses ; a groom. 
2892 
Unskild mediciners, and horsemarshels slays both man 
and beast. Hay, Proverbs (1678), p. 394. 
Same as 
horse-radish 
horse-masher (hors'mash // er), . 
horse-tuna tcli. 
horsemaster (hors'mas"ter), n. A manager of 
horses ; a rider. 
Of all classes in the kingdom, that from which the town MM**" (hors plum), n. 
volunteers spring is perhaps the least fitted by nature, 
The humour of the underplot constantly verges on horse- 
play, and is certainly neither delicate nor profound 
Nineteenth Centunj, XXIV. 541. 
By personal raids upon the gallery when not acting, 
Mr. Phelps succeeded in stopping the horse-play and 
coarseness of audiences. Westminster Rev., CXXV. 581. 
habit, and training to yield us good horsemaster's. 
Fortnightly Rev., N. S., ; 
1. A small red 
plum which is regarded as a variety of I'm nun 
iliimcstiea. Also called horse-jng, horse-jug. 
[Eng.] 2. The wild plum, Prunns Americana. 
The fruit, when fully ripe, is sweet and edible, and the 
tree is frequently cultivated either for its fruit or as a 
stock on which to graft the varieties of the domestic 
plum. [U. S.] 
XLHI. 169. 
horse-match (hors'mach), n. See liorsr-miiateh. 
horse-mealt (hors'mel), . Pood without drink. 
Davies. 
Eating never hurt any one who washed down his vie- horse-pond (hors'pond), n. , A pond for water- 
tuals with a glass of good wine; horse-meals indeed are ing horses, 
enough to choak human creatures. horsepond (hors'pond), i: t. [< horse-pond, .] 
C. Johnston ^ Chrysal, I. 220. To duck in a horse-pond. [Rare.] 
horse-meatt (hdrs'met), . Food for horses; 
... j n _ If she had ordered me to be hurseponded, I do protest 
ler - to you I would not have demurred. 
Who gives you your maintenance, I pray you? who al- Hiss Burney, Camilla, iii. 10. 
lows you your horse-meat and man's-meatV 
B. Jonson, Epicoene, iii. 1. horse ; pOppy (hors'pop'i), n. A European um- 
^ a horse-post (hdrs'post), . A post to which 
rhors'miKi n6r> OTI whn horses are hitched; a hitching-post. 
corations'for horle* bone-power (hdrs'pou'er), . 1. The power of a 
1681 horse orits equivalent; the rate at which a horse 
works in drawing. Hence 2. A unit for the 
measurement of the rate at which a prime motor 
works. Several values have been assigned to this unit 
but the one which prevails at the present time in England 
and America is Watt's horse power, which is defined as 
650 foot-pounds per second. This is 7,460 megaergs per 
second. The real power of a horse is about three quarters 
of a horse-power. Abbreviated H. P. 
3. A machine for converting the weight or di- 
[An affected term.] 
The trammels of his palfrey pleased his sight, 
For the horse-milliner his head with poses dight 
Chatterton, Kowley's Balade of Charitie. 
One conies in foreign trashery 
Of tinkling chain and spur, 
A walking haberdashery 
Of feathers, lace, and fur ; 
In Rowley's antiquated phrase, 
Horse-milliner of modern days. 
Scott, Bridal of Triennain, ii. rect pull of a horse into power useful in mov- 
horsemint (hors'mint), . [< ME. horsminte, 
< AS. * horsminte (Lye not authenticated) = 
J3w. horsmi/nte, Mentha areensis (prob. taken 
from E.); < hors, horse, + minte, mint.] 1. A 
wild mint of Europe, Mentha sylvestris. 2. An 
American plant, Monarda punctata, common 
from New York southward Round-leafed horse- 
mint, Mentha rotundifolia, a native of Europe, but now 
naturalized in the United States. Sweet horsemint, 
Cunil a Mariana, the common dittany. 
horse-musher (hors'mush'er), . Same as 
horse-smateh. 
horse-mushroom (hors'mush'rom), n. Same 
as hedge-mushroom. 
horse-mussel (h6rs'mus'l), w. A large mussel 
of the genus Modiola, especially M. modiolus, 
common to the shores of northern Europe and 
America, having a smooth blackish shell. 
horse-nail (hors'nal), . A nail for fastening 
a horseshoe to the hoof. 
horse-nestt (hors'nest), . Same as mare's 
nest. 
Boom grammatical pullet . . . would stand clocking 
agaynst mee, as though hee had found an hone nest, in 
laying that downe for a fait that perhaps I dooe knowe 
better then hee. Stanihuret, tr. of Virgil, To the Reader. 
horse-net (hors'net), n, A net to protect a horse 
ing machinery. Such machines are either treadmills 
or circular sweeps. The hitter consist essentially of a long 
sweep to the end of which the horse is harnessed, a sim- 
ple form of gearing for transmitting the motion of the 
sweep to a pulley, with generally an increase of velocity, 
and a belt or shafting for conveying the power of the 
machine to the work, as a mill, threshing-machine, press, 
pump, elevator, fire-engine, or other machine, to be driv- 
en. Indicated horse-power, the work, expressed in 
horse- power, performed per minute by steam, air, or other 
gas upon the piston of an engine, in the computation of 
which the mean effective pressure per square inch of pis 
ton is taken from an indicator diagram. See indicator. 
Also called true, actual, real, or dynamic horse-power. 
Nominal, calculated, or commercial horse-power, 
horse-power calculated from the area of the piston, tome- 
times not more than one tenth of the real horse-power. 
Though the commercial horse-power is arbitrarily called 
calculated horse power, it is easy to calculate the true horse- 
power by the principles of thermodynamics when the vol- 
ume or weight and pressure of the steam, air, or gas used 
for each piston-stroke and the number of strokes per min- 
ute are given. 
horsepox (hors'poks), n. A pustular disease of 
horses, which, communicated to cows, produces 
cowpox. 
M. Blachez related the particulars of an outbreak of 
casual horse-pox among the she-asses used for giving suck 
to the inmates of a nursery. N. Y. lied. Jour., XL. 648. 
horse-purslane (h6rs'pers"lan), n. A plant, 
Trianthema monogyna, a native of Jamaica. 
from flies. horse-race (hors'ras), ' n. A race by horses; a 
horse-nettle (hors'net '!),. A pernicious ma tch of horses in running. 
American weed, Solanum Carolmciise, of the 
Horseraces are desports of great men, and good in 
themselves, though many gentlemen by such means gal- 
lop quite out of their fortunes. 
Burton, quoted in Strut! s Sports and Pastimes, p. 108. 
pose of racing. 
The first Lord Go- 
dolphin was a horse- 
racer as well as gam- 
bler. 
Athenaeum, Sept. 22, 
(1888, p. 381. 
2. One who rides 
in races; a jockey. 
nightshade family, common in the Southern 
States. 
horse-parsley (hors'parsli), w. A coarse um- 
belliferous plant, Smyrttium Olustrum: so called horse-racer (hors'ra/ser), n. 1. One who keeps 
from its coarseness as compared with smallage horses for the pur- 
or celery. It is a native of Europe, 
horse-path (hors'path), n. A path for horses; 
specifically, a bridle-path, or the tow-path along 
a canal. 
horse-pick (hdrs'pik), n. A kind of hook, often 
forming part of a large pocket-knife, for re- 
moving a stone from a horse's foot. 
horse-piece (hors'pes), >i. A large or coarse 
piece of blubber. A horse-piece of whale's blubber is 
a very tough piece selected to be placed under the mass horse-racing 
which is to be cut up, to protect the edge of the knife. (hors'ra'sing) n. 
The fat [of the sea-elephant] ... is cut into horse-pieces, The practice or 
about eight Inches wide, and twelve to fifteen long. sport of running 
C. M. Scammon, Marine Mammals, p. 119. n o rses 
horse-pile (hors'pll), . A large pile or lot of horse-rack(h6rs'- 
salted fish heaped up to drain; a water-horse, rak), n. A rack 
Cod placed in what is called a horse-pile to drain. 
Perley. 
horse-pipe (hors'pip), n. One of several spe- 
cies of Equisetum, the horsetail or scouring- 
rush. 
horse-pistol (hdrs'pis'tol), n. A pistol of large 
caliber, formerly carried in holsters by dra- 
goons and other horsemen, 
horse-play (h6rs'pla), n. Coarse or rude play, horse -ra a isn Horse-radish 
Second Plan. We have a play wherein we use a horse. \ S ; . ?'J "' ' .'hizome, ith two 
Sim. Fellows, you use n/Jrse-pla V in my house. A cultivated cru- he^florescence, w,,h flow 
Middleton, Mayor of Queensborough, v. 1. citerous plant, opened to show the seeds. 
at which horses 
are hitched and 
baited. 
He's a-standin' out 
yander by the horse- 
rack. 
J. C. Harris, Harper's 
[Mag., LXXVI. 707. 
