horse-radish 
Cochlearia Armoracia, originally a native of mid- 
dle Europe and western Asia, and also its root, 
which has a pungent taste, and is used in a 
grated state as a condiment. In medicine it is 
used as a stimulant and diuretic, and externally 
as a rubefacient. See Cochlearia 1 . 
horseradish-tree (hors'rad'ish-tre), n. A tree, 
Morinaa pterygosperma, common in many parts 
of India, and cultivated there, as well as in vari- 
ous other tropical countries, for the sake of the 
fruit, which is eaten as a vegetable or pickled. 
It has pinnate leaves and long, 3-valved, pod-like capsules, 
from which ben-oil is obtained. The fresh root has a pun- 
gent odor and warm taste, much like that of the horse- 
radish. 
horse-railroad (hors'ral'rod), . A railroad on 
which cars are drawn by horses, first used in 
the streets of cities in the United States: called 
a tramway in Great Britain. 
horse-rake (hors'rak), . A large rake drawn 
by a horse. See rake. 
horse-rider (hors'ri'der), n. A circus-rider. 
[Eng.] 
The horse-riders never mind what they say, sir ; they're 
famous for it. Dickens, Hard Times, v. 
horse-riding (hors'ri // ding), . A circus. [Eng.] 
Sleary's horse-riding. Dickens, Hard Times, iii. 
horse-rough (hors'ruf), . A calk or ice-creep- 
er which may be fitted to the 
shoe of a horse to give him a 
foothold on frozen ground. 
horse-run (hors'run), . A 
contrivance for drawing up 
loaded wheelbarrows, by the 
help of a horse, from the bot- 
toms of excavations for ca- 
nals, docks, etC. Horse-rough. 
horse-runningt, n. A horse-race. Davies. 
The Forest of Qaltres, . . . very notorious in these daies 
by reason of a solemne horse-running, wherein the horse 
that outrunneth the rest hath for his prise a little golden 
belL Holland, tr. of Camden, p. 723. 
horse-sense (hors'seus'), w. A crude, instinc- 
tive kind of common sense, independent of in- 
struction or experience ; a coarse, robust, and 
conspicuous form of shrewdness often found 
in ignorant and rude persons ; plain, practical 
good sense. 
He was a plain man ; his sympathies were with the peo- 
ple ; he had what is roughly known as horse-sense, and he 
was homely. C. D. Warner, Backlog Studies, p. 133. 
Happily, the latent horse-sense of the American people 
may be relied on, in the end, to abate the nuisance. 
New Eng. Jour, of Education, XIX. 377. 
horseshoe (hors'sho), n. [< ME. horscho (for 
liors-scho, var. horsissho, horsis sho Prompt. 
Parv.); < horse 1 + shoe.'] 1. A shoe for a 
horse, consisting commonly of a narrow plate 
of iron bent into a form somewhat resem- 
bling the letter U> so as to accommodate it- 
self to the shape of the horse's foot. Its parts 
are the toe, the two heels, the quarters between the toe 
and the heels, the calks, or projections from the lower part 
of each heel, the clip, a kind of claw, usually at the upper 
edge of the toe, for protecting the hoof and assisting in 
keeping the shoe in place, and the .fullering, or crease in 
the lower face, in which the nail-holes, usually eight, are 
punched. The horseshoe, in its most primitive form, is 
of great antiquity. An old and very popular superstition, 
almost universally prevalent among peasantry, ascribes to 
the horseshoe (especially to one which has been found In 
the road by chance) the power of barring the passage of 
witches. For this purpose the shoe is nailed to the door or 
the threshold. 
To be thrown into the Thames, and cooled, glowing 
hot, in that surge, like a horse-shoe. 
Shak., M. W. of W., iii. 5. 
Your wife's a witch, man ; you should nail a horse-shoe 
on your chamber-door. Scott, Redgauntlet, ch. xi. 
Nailing of horse-shoes [to thresholds] seems to have been 
practised as well to keep witches in as to keep them out. 
Hone's Year-Book, p. 953. 
2. Anything shaped like a horseshoe. Specifi- 
cally (o) A loop-like bend in a river. (6) In fort., a small 
round or oval work with a parapet, (c) A movable sup- 
port in a lathe, for regulating the gearing and speed of 
the screw which works the slide. 
3. In 2o67. : (a) A horseshoe-crab. 
I don't want my wreck to be washed up on one of the 
beaches in company with devil's-aprons, bladder-weeds, 
dead horse-shoes, etc. Holmes, Autocrat, p. 171. 
(6) A bivalve mollusk, Liitraria cttiptica. Also 
called clump. 4. pi. The game of quoits, in 
which horseshoes are often used for pitching. 
Horseshoe arch. See orc*i, 2. Horseshoe clamp, 
magnet, etc. See the nouns. 
horseshoe (hors'sho), v. t. ; pret. and pp. horse- 
shoed, prjr. horseshoeing. [< horseshoe, .] 1. 
To provide with horseshoes, or shape like a 
horseshoe. 
Sinclair Lithgow, horse-shoeing smith, 
Warks up this close wi' a' his pith. 
Blacksmith's sign in Scotland. 
Horseshoe-crab (Limulus 
Polyphemus}. 
2893 
2. In arch., to carry inward at the imposts, as 
an arch, so as to bring it approximately to the 
form of a horseshoe. 
There is at Takt-i-Gero a Sassanian arch of nearly the 
same age and equally classical in design, which is, like this 
one, horseshoed to the extent of one-tenth of its diameter. 
J. Fergusson, Hist. Arch., I. 391. 
horseshoe-anvil (h6rs'sho-aii"vil), . A form 
of anvil which corresponds in shape and size 
to the hoof of a horse, and has shanks which 
Eermit the adjustment of the hoof in the socket- 
ole for convenience in working, 
horseshoe-bat (hors'sho-bat), . An old-world 
bat of the family Rhinolophidce ; any rhiuolo- 
phid having the nose-leaf more or less horse- 
shoe-shaped. The name applies especially to two Eu- 
ropean species, Rhinolophus ferrum-equinutn and R. hip- 
poxidertig, both of which occur in England, and there rep- 
resent the subfamily Rhinolophinv. Another horseshoe- 
bat is the Indian and Chinese Phyllorhina ai-migera, which 
is a representative of the Phyllorhininw, the other subfam- 
ily of the rhinolophids. The term is loosely extended to 
some other phyllostomine or leaf-nosed bats. 
horseshoe-crab (hors'sho-krab), n. A inero- 
stome of the family Li- 
mulidce, as Limulus poly- 
phemus or L. molucca- 
nus: so called from its 
shape. Also called horse- 
shoe, horsffoot, horse- 
crab, horsef oof-crab, and 
king-crab. See Limiihis. 
horseshoe-head (hors'- 
sho-hed), n. A disease 
of infants in which the 
sutures of the skull are 
too open: opposed to 
head-mold shot. 
horseshoeing (hors'- 
shd*ing), n. The act 
or business of shoeing 
horses; farriery. 
horseshoe-kidney 
(h6rs'sh6-kid"ni), n. In 
anat., a congenital ab- 
normal conformation in 
which the two kidneys 
are connected by a transverse portion, so as to 
present the shape of a horseshoe. 
horseshoe-machine (hors'shp-ma-shen''), n, A 
machine in which bar-iron is cut and formed 
into horseshoes. 
horseshoer (hors'sho"er), n. One who shoes 
horses. 
horseshoe-vetch (h&rs'sho-vech), n. A le- 
guminous plant of the genus Hippocrepis, H. 
comosa, cultivated for the beauty of its flowers, 
which are yellow, in umbels of 6 or 8 : so called 
from the shape of its legumes. Also horse-vetch. 
horse-shovel (h6rs'shuv"l), n. A road-scraper. 
horse-smatch (h6rs'smach), n. A bird, Saxi- 
cola cenanthe; the stonechat or wheatear. Also 
horse-match, horse-masher, horse-musher. [Prov. 
Eng.] 
horse-SOldier (hdrs'soFjer), n. A cavalry sol- 
dier. 
Not having his horse-soldiers with him, ... he [Julius 
Caesar] ran great risk of being totally defeated. 
Dickens, Child's Hist. Eng., 1. 
horse-sorrel (hors'sor'el), n. A coarse species 
of soTTel,RumexHydrolapathum: same as water- 
dock. 
horse-sponge (h&rs'spunj), n. The commercial 
bath-sponge, Spongia eguina, found in the Med- 
iterranean. 
horse-Stinger (h6rs'sting''er), n. The dragon- 
fly or devil's darning-needle. It does not sting 
horses. 
horse-SUgar (h6rs'shug' ! 'ar), n. A tree or shrub : 
same as sweetleaf. 
horsetail (hors'tal), n. 1. A horse's tail, espe- 
cially when severed from the body. 
Let them [servants) not presume to touch a hair of my 
master's hone-tail till they kiss their hands. 
Shak.,T. of theS.,iv. 1. 
Then, by the rule that made the horse-tail bare, 
I pluck out year by year, as hair by hair. 
Pope, Imit. of Horace, II. L 63. 
2. A hippurite. 3. In anat., the leash of 
nerves in which the spinal cord ends : techni- 
cally called cauda equina. See cauda. 4. A 
plant of the genus Equisetum. See cut under 
Equisetacece, 
Following the sound of the water in the runnel, a rare 
spectacle awaits you where the Equisetum, the vulgar 
nurseto.il of the daylight, now stands transfigured, a mar- 
vel of nature's bijoutry. Harper's Mag., LXXVIII. 153. 
Horsetail standard, a modem Turkish military standard 
consisting of a horsetail surmounted by a crescent. It 
appears to have originated from "the people bearing the 
horseweed 
horsetail as a distinction of rank, the two ranks of pasha 
being distinguished respectively by three and two tails, 
and a further distinction of rank being marked by the ele- 
vation of one of the tails above the others " (Hughes, Diet, 
of Islam )^ Shrubby horsetail, a popular name for plants 
of the genus Ephedra. natural order Gnetacece. 1 hey are 
branching shrubs, natives of the sandy sea-shores of tem- 
perate climates in both hemispheres. The fruit is a suc- 
culent cone, formed of two carpels, with a single seed in 
each ; that of /-'. diatacltya, abundant in the southern part 
of Russia, is eaten by the peasants. 
horsetail-lichen (h6rs'tal-U"kea), n. A popu- 
lar name for various species of Alectoria (par- 
ticularly A. jubata), a genus of lichens, of the 
family Usneei, closely related to the genus Vsnea. 
The thallus is slender, soon filiform, terete, and tufted or 
pendulous from the brandies of trees, whence the plant is 
also called tree-hair and horsehair-lichen. 
horsetail-tree (bors' tal-tre), n. A name of trees 
or shrubs (principally Australian) of the genus 
Casuarina, of the natural order Casuaritiea;, and 
particularly of C. equisetifolia, a tree sometimes 
150 feet in height, now extensively naturalized 
in many tropical and subtropical countries of 
both the old and the new world: so called from 
the leafless, wiry branches, which much resem- 
ble the stems of Equisetum. 
horse-thistle (h6rs'this'l), n. A plant of the 
genus Cnicus, consisting of rough prickly this- 
tles, distinguished from Carduus by having the 
receptacle covered with chaffy bristles, and the 
achenia crowned with a soft feathery pappus. 
horse-thrush (hors ' thrush), . The missel- 
thrush, Turdus viscivorus. [Prov. Eng.] 
horse-thyme (hors'tim), . The wild basil, 
Calamintha Clinopodium. 
horse-tick (hors'tik), . Same as horse-fly, 2. 
The forest-fly or horse-tick, Hippobosca. 
A. S. Packard, Study of Insects, p. 417. 
horsetongue (h6rs'tung), n. A plant of the ge- 
nus Ruscus: same as butcher's broom (which see, 
under broom 1 ). 
hOrse-trainer (hors 'trainer), n. One who 
trains or breaks horses; especially, one who 
trains horses for racing. 
horse-tree (hors'tre), n. The beam on which 
the timber is placed in a sawpit. Halliwell. 
[Prov. Eng.] 
horse-trick (hors'trik), n. A rough practical 
joke. 
Make her leap, caper, jerk, and laugh, and sing, 
And play me horse-tricks. Merry Devil of Edmonton. 
horse-vetch (hors'vech), n. Same as horseshoe- 
retch. 
horse-violet (hors'vi'o-let), . The dog-violet, 
Viola canina. 
horseway (hors' wa), . [< ME. horse wey, < AS. 
hors-weg, < hors, horse, + weg, way.] A way or 
road by which a horse may pass. Compare foot- 
way. 
Also with owt the Citys ys an horse wey vnder neth a 
mownteyn, by the space of a myle. 
Torkington, Dial ic of Eng. Travell, p. 66. 
Glo. Know'st thou the way to Dover? 
Edg. Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path. 
Shak., Lear, iv. 1. 
horseweed (hors'wed), . A composite plant, 
Erigeron Canadense, a troublesome American 
Horseweed (Eriferon CaMadfttst). a, ray-flower; *, disk-Bower. 
weed. This is one of the few American weeds that have 
become extensively naturalized in other parts of the world. 
They were hidden and shaded by the broad-leaved horse 
and trumpet weedn in the fence-row. 
The Century, XXXVI. SO. 
