horn Meaning, Definition & Usage

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

WordNet

Horn noun
Etymology
AS. horn; akin to D. horen, hoorn, G., Icel., Sw., & Dan. horn, Goth. haúrn, W., Gael., & Ir. corn, L. cornu, Gr. , and perh. also to E. cheer, cranium, cerebral; cf. Skr. çiras head. Cf. Carat, Corn on the foot, Cornea, Corner, Cornet, Cornucopia, Hart.
Definitions
  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. (Zoöl.) 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 Amalthæa'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. blow one's own horn. To call attention to one's own accomplishments. opposed to "hide one's light under a bushel"
Horn transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To furnish with horns; to give the shape of a horn to.
  2. To cause to wear horns; to cuckold. Obs. Shak.

Webster 1913