HORN, n. [L. cornu]

1. A hard substance growing on the heads of certain animals, and particularly on cloven-footed quadrupeds; usually projecting to some length and terminating in a point. Horns are generally bent or curving, and those of some animals are spiral. They serve for weapons of offense and defense. The substance of horns is gelatinous, and in Papin's digester it may be converted into jelly. Encyc. Horn is an animal substance, chiefly membranous, consisting of coagulated albumen, with a little gelatin and phosphate of lime. Ure. The horns of deer possess exactly the properties of bone, and are composed of the same constituents, only the proportion of cartilage is greater. Thomson.
2. A wind instrument of music, made of horn; a trumpet. Such were used by the Israelites.
3. In modern times, a wind instrument made of metal.
4. An extremity of the moon, when it is waxing or waning, and forming a crescent. Dryden.
5. The feeler or antenna of an insect.
6. The feeler of a snail, which may be withdrawn; hence, to pull or draw in the horns, is to repress one's ardor, or to restrain pride. Johnson.
7. A drinking-cup; horns being used anciently for cups.
8. A winding stream. Dryden.
9. Horns, in the plural, is used to characterize a cuckold. He wears the horns.
10. In Scripture, horn is a symbol of strength or power. The horn of Moab is cut off. Jer. xviii. Horn is also an emblem of glory, honor, dignity. My horn is exalted in the Lord. 1 Sam. ii. In Daniel, horn represents a kingdom or state.

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. To furnish with horns; to give the shape of a horn to.
3. The antler of a deer, which is of bone throughout, and annually shed and renewed.
4. To cause to wear horns; to cuckold.
   
   
   [Obs.] Shak.
5. 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.
6. An incurved, tapering and pointed appendage found in the flowers of the milkweed (Asclepias).
7. Something made of a horn, or in resemblance of a horn
   
   
   ; as: (a)
8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.
11. A symbol of strength, power, glory, exaltation, or pride.
    
    

    The Lord is . . . the horn of my salvation. Ps. xviii. 2.

12. An emblem of a cuckold; -- used chiefly in the plural.
    
    
    "Thicker than a cuckold's horn." Shak.

    Horn block, the frame or pedestal in which a railway car axle box slides up and down; -- also called horn plate. -- Horn of a dilemma. See under Dilemma. -- Horn distemper, a disease of cattle, affecting the internal substance of the horn. -- Horn drum, a wheel with long curved scoops, for raising water. -- Horn lead (Chem.), chloride of lead. -- Horn maker, a maker of cuckolds. [Obs.] Shak. -- Horn mercury. (Min.) Same as Horn quicksilver (below). -- Horn poppy (Bot.), a plant allied to the poppy (Glaucium luteum), found on the sandy shores of Great Britain and Virginia; -- called also horned poppy. Gray. -- Horn pox (Med.), abortive smallpox with an eruption like that of chicken pox. -- Horn quicksilver (Min.), native calomel, or bichloride of mercury. -- Horn shell (Zoöl.), any long, sharp, spiral, gastropod shell, of the genus Cerithium, and allied genera. -- Horn silver (Min.), cerargyrite. -- Horn slate, a gray, siliceous stone. -- To haul in one's horns, to withdraw some arrogant pretension. [Colloq.] -- To raise, or lift, the horn (Script.), to exalt one's self; to act arrogantly. "'Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn?" Milton. -- To take a horn, to take a drink of intoxicating liquor. [Low]