colt

Etymology

From Middle English colt, from Old English colt (“young donkey, young camel”), 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 Norwegian kult (“treestump”), Swedish kult (“young boar, boy, lad”). Related to child.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɒlt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəʊlt/, /kɔʊlt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /koʊlt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊlt

Noun

colt (plural colts)

1. A young male horse.
2. A youthful or inexperienced person; a novice.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, I. ii. 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.

3. (nautical) A short piece of rope once used by petty officers as an instrument of punishment.

Verb

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.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Cymbeline, II. iv. 133:

     Never talk on't: / She hath been colted by him.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To befool.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, II. ii. 36:

     What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?

3. To frisk or frolic like a colt; to act licentiously or wantonly.
   • Spenser

     They shook off their bridles and began to colt.

See also

• stallion, mare, foal, filly, horseling

References

• colt in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• clot