horseshoe
pronunciation
How to pronounce horseshoe in British English:
UK [ˈhɔːsʃuː]
How to pronounce horseshoe in American English:
US [ˈhɔːrʃʃuː]
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- Noun:
- game equipment consisting of an open ring of iron used in playing horseshoes
- U-shaped plate nailed to underside of horse's hoof
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- Verb:
- equip (a horse) with a horseshoe or horseshoes
Word Origin
- horseshoe (n.)
- late 14c. (early 13c. as a proper name), from horse (n.) + shoe (n.). Horseshoes as another name for the game of quoits, attested by 1822. HORSE-SHOES, the game of coits, or quoits--because sometimes actually played with horse-shoes. [John Trotter Brockett, "A Glossary of North Country Words," 1829] The belief that finding a horseshoe by chance is lucky is attested from late 14c., and the practice of nailing one above a doorway to prevent a witch entering therein was common in London down to c. 1800. Of a type of bend in a river, 1770, American English. As a type of crab, from 1775.
Example
- 1. The blacksmith shaped a horseshoe on his anvil .
- 2. The smith forged the horseshoe with great skill .
- 3. The biggest is the horseshoe falls on the canadian side .
- 4. Cityu and ocean park launched the first juvenile horseshoe crab rearing programme .
- 5. A dense plume flows east from the wallow fire in arizona , with a fainter plume rising from the horseshoe 2 fire in the south .