horny

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See also: horný and hôrny

English[edit]

A horny male Nubian ibex.

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English horny, equivalent to horn +‎ -y. Compare German hornig. Compare also Dutch hoornachtig, Swedish hornaktig, Old English hyrniġ (angular).

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

horny (comparative hornier, superlative horniest)

  1. Hard or bony, like an animal's horn.
    Synonyms: callous, coarse, hardened, rough
    • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian, Collins, Chapter 6:
      Two Dwarfs were at the bellows, another was holding a piece of red-hot metal on the anvil with a pair of tongs, a fourth was hammering it, and two, wiping their horny little hands on a greasy cloth, were coming forward to meet the visitors.
  2. Having the hard consistency and pale colour of an animal's horn.
    Synonym: ceratose (en, biology)
  3. Having horns.
    Synonym: horned
    • 2023 June 7, Karen M. Dvornich, “Short-horned Lizard”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[1], archived from the original on 2010-10-28:
      In 1997, 4th and 5th grade Waterville Elementary students told me they saw Short-horned lizards (commonly known as Horny toads) all around their area.
  4. (slang, informal) Sexually aroused.
    Synonyms: randy, toey, in heat, excited; see also Thesaurus:randy
    • 1949, Henry Miller, Sexus (The Rosy Crucifixion), Grove Press, published 1965, →ISBN, page 104:
      [H]er thick, gurgling voice saying [] : "Get it in all the way… please, please do… I’m horny."
    • 1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 82:
      After a while I sat down in a chair and smoked a couple of cigarettes. I was feeling pretty horny. I have to admit it.
    • 1971 October, Black World, page 65/1:
      Ain’t that the horny bitch that was grindin with the blind dude.
    • 1993, “Back Seat (of My Jeep)”, in 14 Shots to the Dome, performed by LL Cool J:
      As I turn the corner, starin' in your cornea / You're gettin' hornier and hornier
    • 2019 December 13, Tracie Egan Morrissey, “The Year Women Got ‘Horny’”, in New York Times[2]:
      “Mrs. Fletcher,” the HBO mini-series about a middle-aged woman’s sexual reawakening, showcases a horny mom who can’t stop masturbating to pornography.
  5. (slang, informal) Sexually arousing.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sexy
    • 2003, Peep Show (TV series), Funeral (episode)
      Mark Corrigan: She [the dentist] should have to wear a mask for this kind of thing. Reagan or Batman or... actually she'd look pretty horny as Batman... Jesus, no, don't!

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • (sexually aroused): Irish: adharcach (semantic loan)
  • (sexually aroused): Russian: хорни (xorni)
  • (sexually aroused): Saterland Frisian: honig

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Further reading[edit]