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Cape Horn

 Origin

Cape Horn

 
noun
a headland on a small island at the S extremity of South America: belongs to Chile.
Dictionary.com Unabridged

Horn

   [hawrn]
noun
Cape. Cape Horn.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
Cape Horn
 
—n
Also called: the Horn a rocky headland on an island at the extreme S tip of South America, belonging to Chile. It is notorious for gales and heavy seas; until the building of the Panama Canal it lay on the only sea route between the Atlantic and the Pacific

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

horn
O.E. horn "horn of an animal," also "wind instrument" (originally made from animal horns), from P.Gmc. *khurnaz (cf. Ger. Horn, Du. horen, Goth. haurn), from PIE *ker- "uppermost part of the body, head, horn, top, summit" (cf. Gk. karnon, L. cornu, Skt. srngam "horn"). Reference to car horns is first
EXPAND
recorded 1901. A hornpipe was originally a hornepype (c.1400), a musical instrument with bell and mouthpiece made of horn, later (c.1485) "dance associated with sailors" (originally performed to music from such an instrument). To horn in "intrude" is attested by 1880, originally cowboy slang, on the notion of buffalo behavior.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

horn (hôrn)
n.

  1. One of the hard, usually permanent structures projecting from the head of certain mammals, such as cattle, consisting of a bony core covered with a sheath of keratinous material.

  2. A hard protuberance that is similar to or suggestive of a horn.

  3. The hard, smooth keratinous material forming the outer covering of animal horns.

  4. Any of the major subdivisions of the lateral ventricle in the cerebral hemisphere of the brain: the frontal horn, occipital horn, and temporal horn. Also called cornu.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
horn   (hôrn)  Pronunciation Key 

  1. Either of the bony growths projecting from the upper part of the head of certain hoofed mammals, such as cattle, sheep, and goats. The horns of these animals are never shed, and they consist of bone covered by keratin.

  2. A hard growth that looks like a horn, such as an antler or a growth on the head of a giraffe or rhinoceros. Unlike true horns, antlers are shed yearly and have a velvety covering, and the horns of a rhinoceros are made not of bone but of hairy skin fused with keratin.

  3. The hard durable substance that forms the outer covering of true horns. It consists of keratin.


The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary

horn definition


  1. n.
    the nose. : He scratched his horn with his pencil and opened his mouth to speak.
  2. n.
    the telephone. : She's on the horn now. What'll I tell her?
  3. tv.
    to sniff or snorta narcotic. (Drugs.) : Ernie horned a line and paused for a minute.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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