Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

horn       (hôrn)  Pronunciation Key  (click for larger image in new window) n.   One of the hard, usually permanent structures projecting from the head of certain mammals, such as cattle, sheep, goats, or antelopes, consisting of a bony core covered with a sheath of keratinous material. A hard protuberance, such as an antler or projection on the head of a giraffe or rhinoceros, that is similar to or suggestive of a horn. The hard smooth keratinous material forming the outer covering of the horns of cattle or related animals. A natural or synthetic substance resembling this material. A horn of plenty; a cornucopia. Either of the ends of a new moon. The point of an anvil. The pommel of a saddle. An ear trumpet. A device for projecting sound waves, as in a loudspeaker. A hollow, metallic electromagnetic transmission antenna with a circular or rectangular cross section. A wind instrument made of an animal horn. A brass wind instrument, such as a trombone or tuba. A French horn. A wind instrument, such as a trumpet or saxophone, used in a jazz band. A usually electrical signaling device that produces a loud resonant sound: an automobile horn. Any of various noisemakers operated by blowing or by squeezing a hollow rubber ball. A container, such as a powder horn, made from a horn. Something having the shape of a horn, especially: A horn of plenty; a cornucopia. Either of the ends of a new moon. The point of an anvil. The pommel of a saddle. An ear trumpet. A device for projecting sound waves, as in a loudspeaker. A hollow, metallic electromagnetic transmission antenna with a circular or rectangular cross section. A wind instrument made of an animal horn. A brass wind instrument, such as a trombone or tuba. A French horn. A wind instrument, such as a trumpet or saxophone, used in a jazz band. A usually electrical signaling device that produces a loud resonant sound: an automobile horn. Any of various noisemakers operated by blowing or by squeezing a hollow rubber ball. Music A wind instrument made of an animal horn. A brass wind instrument, such as a trombone or tuba. A French horn. A wind instrument, such as a trumpet or saxophone, used in a jazz band. A usually electrical signaling device that produces a loud resonant sound: an automobile horn. Any of various noisemakers operated by blowing or by squeezing a hollow rubber ball. A usually electrical signaling device that produces a loud resonant sound: an automobile horn. Any of various noisemakers operated by blowing or by squeezing a hollow rubber ball. Slang A telephone. intr.v.   horned, horn·ing, horns To join without being invited; intrude. Used with in. [Middle English, from Old English; see ker-1 in Indo-European roots.] horn adj., horn'ist n.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Horn       (hôrn)  Pronunciation Key  A headland of extreme southern Chile in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. The southernmost point of South America, it was first rounded in 1616 by the Dutch navigator Willem Schouten (died 1625), who named it after his birthplace, Hoorn. It is notorious for its storms and heavy seas.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
horn 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

horn
noun
1.	a noisemaker (as at parties or games) that makes a loud noise when you blow through it
2.	one of the bony outgrowths on the heads of certain ungulates
3.	a noise made by the driver of an automobile to give warning;
4.	a high pommel of a Western saddle (usually metal covered with leather)
5.	a brass musical instrument with a brilliant tone; has a narrow tube and a flared bell and is played by means of valves [syn: cornet]
6.	any hard protuberance from the head of an organism that is similar to or suggestive of a horn
7.	the material (mostly keratin) that covers the horns of ungulates and forms hooves and claws and nails
8.	a device having the shape of a horn; "horns at the ends of a new moon"; "the hornof an anvil"; "the cleat had two horns"
9.	an alarm device that makes a loud warning sound
10.	a brass musical instrument consisting of a conical tube that is coiled into a spiral and played by means of valves [syn: French horn]
11.	a device on an automobile for making a warning noise [syn: automobile horn]
verb
1.	stab or pierce with a horn or tusk; "the rhino horned the explorer"

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

horn

In addition to the idioms beginning with horn, also see blow one's own horn; lock horns; pull in one's horns; take the bull by the horns.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

horn       (hôrn)  Pronunciation Key  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. 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. The hard durable substance that forms the outer covering of true horns. It consists of keratin.

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

U.S. Gazetteer - Cite This Source - Share This

Horn Lake, MS (city, FIPS 33700) Location: 34.95608 N, 90.03528 W
Population (1990): 9069 (3136 housing units)
Area: 14.9 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 38637

Big Horn County, MT (county, FIPS 3) Location: 45.42945 N, 107.48976 W
Population (1990): 11337 (4304 housing units)
Area: 12936.7 sq km (land), 51.4 sq km (water)

Big Horn County, WY (county, FIPS 3) Location: 44.52553 N, 107.98750 W
Population (1990): 10525 (5048 housing units)
Area: 8125.2 sq km (land), 56.9 sq km (water)

Elk Horn, IA (city, FIPS 24780) Location: 41.59272 N, 95.06040 W
Population (1990): 672 (265 housing units)
Area: 2.0 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 51531

Elk Horn, KY Zip code(s): 42733

Van Horn, TX (town, FIPS 75032) Location: 31.04001 N, 104.83457 W
Population (1990): 2930 (1073 housing units)
Area: 7.1 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Horn

Horn\, n. [AS. horn; akin to D. horen, hoorn, G., Icel., Sw., & Dan. horn, Goth. ha['u]rn, W., Gael., & Ir. corn, L. cornu, Gr. ?, and perh. also to E. cheer, cranium, cerebral; cf. Skr. [,c]iras head. Cf. Carat, Corn on the foot, Cornea, Corner, Cornet, Cornucopia, Hart.]

1. A hard, projecting, and usually pointed organ, growing upon the heads of certain animals, esp. of the ruminants, as cattle, goats, and the like. The hollow horns of the Ox family consist externally of true horn, and are never shed.

2. The antler of a deer, which is of bone throughout, and annually shed and renewed.

3. (Zo["o]l.) Any natural projection or excrescence from an animal, resembling or thought to resemble a horn in substance or form; esp.: (a) A projection from the beak of a bird, as in the hornbill. (b) A tuft of feathers on the head of a bird, as in the horned owl. (c) A hornlike projection from the head or thorax of an insect, or the head of a reptile, or fish. (d) A sharp spine in front of the fins of a fish, as in the horned pout.

4. (Bot.) An incurved, tapering and pointed appendage found in the flowers of the milkweed (Asclepias).

5. Something made of a horn, or in resemblance of a horn; as: (a) A wind instrument of music; originally, one made of a horn (of an ox or a ram); now applied to various elaborately wrought instruments of brass or other metal, resembling a horn in shape. "Wind his horn under the castle wall." --Spenser. See French horn, under French. (b) A drinking cup, or beaker, as having been originally made of the horns of cattle. "Horns of mead and ale." --Mason. (c) The cornucopia, or horn of plenty. See Cornucopia. "Fruits and flowers from Amalth[ae]a's horn." --Milton. (d) A vessel made of a horn; esp., one designed for containing powder; anciently, a small vessel for carrying liquids. "Samuel took the hornof oil and anointed him [David]." --1 Sam. xvi. 13. (e) The pointed beak of an anvil. (f) The high pommel of a saddle; also, either of the projections on a lady's saddle for supporting the leg. (g) (Arch.) The Ionic volute. (h) (Naut.) The outer end of a crosstree; also, one of the projections forming the jaws of a gaff, boom, etc. (i) (Carp.) A curved projection on the fore part of a plane. (j) One of the projections at the four corners of the Jewish altar of burnt offering. "Joab . . . caught hold on the horns of the altar." --1 Kings ii. 28.

6. One of the curved ends of a crescent; esp., an extremity or cusp of the moon when crescent-shaped.

The moon Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns. --Thomson.

7. (Mil.) The curving extremity of the wing of an army or of a squadron drawn up in a crescentlike form.

Sharpening in mooned horns Their phalanx. --Milton.

8. The tough, fibrous material of which true horns are composed, being, in the Ox family, chiefly albuminous, with some phosphate of lime; also, any similar substance, as that which forms the hoof crust of horses, sheep, and cattle; as, a spoon of horn.

9. (Script.) A symbol of strength, power, glory, exaltation, or pride.

The Lord is . . . the horn of my salvation. --Ps. xviii. 2.

10. An emblem of a cuckold; -- used chiefly in the plural. "Thicker than a cuckold's horn." --Shak.

Horn block, the frame or pedestal in which a railway car axle box slides up and down; -- also called horn plate.

Horn of a dilemma. See under Dilemma.

Horn distemper, a disease of cattle, affecting the internal substance of the horn.

Horn drum, a wheel with long curved scoops, for raising water.

Horn lead (Chem.), chloride of lead.

Horn maker, a maker of cuckolds. [Obs.] --Shak.

Horn mercury. (Min.) Same as Horn quicksilver (below).

Horn poppy (Bot.), a plant allied to the poppy (Glaucium luteum), found on the sandy shores of Great Britain and Virginia; -- called also horned poppy. --Gray.

Horn pox (Med.), abortive smallpox with an eruption like that of chicken pox.

Horn quicksilver (Min.), native calomel, or bichloride of mercury.

Horn shell (Zo["o]l.), any long, sharp, spiral, gastropod shell, of the genus Cerithium, and allied genera.

Horn silver (Min.), cerargyrite.

Horn slate, a gray, siliceous stone.

To haul in one's horns, to withdraw some arrogant pretension. [Colloq.]

To raise, or lift, the horn (Script.), to exalt one's self; to act arrogantly. "'Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn?" --Milton.

To take a horn, to take a drink of intoxicating liquor. [Low]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Horn

Horn\, v. t. 1. To furnish with horns; to give the shape of a horn to.

2. To cause to wear horns; to cuckold. [Obs.] --Shak.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Horn

Trumpets were at first horns perforated at the tip, used for various purposes (Josh. 6:4,5). Flasks or vessels were made of horn (1 Sam. 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39). But the word is used also metaphorically to denote the projecting corners of the altar of burnt offerings (Ex. 27:2) and of incense (30:2). The horns of the altar of burnt offerings were to be smeared with the blood of the slain bullock (29:12; Lev. 4:7-18). The criminal, when his crime was accidental, found an asylum by laying hold of the horns of the altar (1 Kings 1:50; 2:28). The word also denotes the peak or summit of a hill (Isa. 5:1, where the word "hill" is the rendering of the same Hebrew word). This word is used metaphorically also for strength (Deut. 33:17) and honour (Job 16:15; Lam. 2:3). Horns are emblems of power, dominion, glory, and fierceness, as they are the chief means of attack and defence with the animals endowed with them (Dan. 8:5, 9; 1 Sam. 2:1; 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39; 22:11; Josh. 6:4, 5; Ps. 75:5, 10; 132:17; Luke 1:69, etc.). The expression "horn of salvation," applied to Christ, means a salvation of strength, or a strong Saviour (Luke 1:69). To have the horn "exalted" denotes prosperity and triumph (Ps. 89:17, 24). To "lift up" the horn is to act proudly (Zech. 1:21). Horns are also the symbol of royal dignity and power (Jer. 48:25; Zech. 1:18; Dan. 8:24).