headstall
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈhɛdstɔːl/
Noun

headstall (plural headstalls)

  1. The part of a bridle that fits over a horse's head and supports other elements. [from 14th c.]
    • circa 1593 William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act III, Scene 2,
      Why, Petruchio is coming […] his horse hipp’d […] with a half-cheek’d bit, and a head-stall of sheep’s leather which, being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots […]
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.3:
      Another, that would seeme to have more wit, / Him by the bright embrodered hed-stall tooke […].
    • 1952, John Steinbeck, East of Eden (novel), Penguin, 2003, Chapter 15, Part 4, p. 172,
      He turned back, slipped the bit in Dox’s mouth, and laced the big flop ears into the headstall.
    • 1989, Keith Bosley, translating Elias Lönnrot, The Kalevala, XIX:
      Then the smith Ilmarinen / the everlasting craftsman / out of steel formed a bridle / forged a headstall transterm päitset of iron […].
  2. (obsolete) A phorbeia. [18th-19th c.]
Synonyms Translations


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