shoeing-horn

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English

Noun

shoeing-horn (plural shoeing-horns)

  1. (dated) A shoehorn.
  2. (obsolete) Anything that facilitates a transaction; that which smooths the way or greases the wheels.
  3. (UK, obsolete, Elizabethan English) Anything that induces or "draws on" thirst.
    • 1838, Isaac D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature:
      ...some of "the general rules and inventions for drinking, as good as printed precepts or statutes by act of parliament, that go from drunkard to drunkard; as... to have some shoeing-horn to pull on your wine, as a rasher on the coals or a red herring..."
      Shoeing-horns, sometimes called gloves, are also described by Bishop Hall in his "Mundus alter et idem." "Then sir, comes me up a service of shoeing-horns of all sorts; salt cakes, red herrings, anchovies, and gammon of bacon, and abundance of such pullers on." ... And yet a drawer-on too; i.e.an incitement to appetite: the phrase is yet in use. This drawer-on was also technically termed a puller-on, and a shoeing-horn in drink.
  4. (obsolete) A young man encouraged by a woman as a hanger-on to encourage the advances of more desirable suitors.
    • 1712, Joseph Addison, The Spectator 14th November 1712:
      Now you cannot but observe, that most of our fine young Ladies readily fall in with the Direction of the Graver sort, to retain in their Service, by some small Encouragement, as great a Number as they can of supernumerary and insignificant Fellows, which they use like whifflers, and commonly call Shoeing-Horns. These are never designed to know the length of the Foot, but only when a good Offer comes to whet and spur him up to the Point. Nay 'tis the Opinion of that grave Lady, Madam Matchwell, that it's absolutely convenient for every prudent Family to have several of these Implements about the House, to clap on as occasion serves, and that every Spark ought to produce a Certificate of his being a Shoeing-Horn, before he be admitted as a Shoe. A certain Lady, whom I could name, if it was necessary, has at present more Shoeing-Horns of all Sizes, Countries, and Colours, in her Service, than ever she had new Shoes in her Life.

References

  • 1949, John Dover Wilson (compiler), Life in Shakespeare's England. A Book of Elizabethan Prose, Cambridge at the University Press. 1st ed. 1911, 2nd ed. 1913, 8th reprint. In Glossary and Notes

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