Also 3–6 colte, 5 collt, kowlt, 6–7 coult, 7 coalt, 9 dial. cowt, cout. [OE. colt, applied to the young ass and young camel (see quot. c. 1000); of obscure origin. Cf. Sw. dial. kult pig, hardy boy, also Sw. kull, Du. kuld, brood, family, Sw. kulter, kulting, Da. koltring big lad; no related words appear in Icelandic.]
1. The young of the horse, or of animals of the horse kind. In Scripture applied also to the young of the camel.
The sense ‘young ass’ is now perh. only dialectal. While the young of the horse is still with the dam it is usually called a foal; afterwards the young horse is a colt to the age of 4, or in the case of a thoroughbred, 5 years, while the young mare is a filly. On Dartmoor the name is used to include ponies or moorland horses generally.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. xxxii. 15. Þritiʓ ʓefolra olfend myrena mid heora coltum … and xx ass myrena mid heora tyn coltun.
c. 1290. Lives Saints, Laud MS. (1887), 482. Wilde coltes and strongue.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xli. (1495), 802. Whyle he is a colte he maye touche his heed wyth his hynder fote.
1481. Caxton, Reynard, xxvii. (Arb.), 62. There sawe we goo a rede mare, And she had a black colte or a fool of iiij monethis olde.
1611. Bible, Gen. xxxii. 15. Thirtie milch camels with their colts, fortie kine, and ten bulles, twenty shee ashes, and ten foales. Ibid., John xii. 15. Behold, thy King commeth, sitting on an asses colt.
1632. Sanderson, Serm., 366. Like an vnruly coult that will ouer hedge and ditch.
1730. Bailey (folio), Colt, a young Horse, Mare or Ass.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric., I. 425. At two years old, the colt, if for harness, may be put to plough or harrow.
1887. W. F. Collier, Venville Rights on Dartmoor, 6 (in Trans. Devonsh. Assoc., XIX.). A messenger is sent very early in the morning … to the moorman of a quarter, ordering him to drive his quarter, say for ponies, or colts, as they are called in drift language.
fig. 1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., IV. iii. Nay, we will break the hedges of their mouths, And pull their kicking colts out of their pastures.
2. fig. (mostly humorous or slang.) Applied to persons having the characteristics of a colt: a. A young or inexperienced person, a ‘green hand’; spec. in Cricket (see quot. 1873); in dial. an awkward young person who needs to be broken in; b. A lively or spirited person; † c. A lascivious fellow, a wanton.
a. 1225. Juliana, 54. Euer beo acurset colt of swuch cunde.
1586. Cogan, Haven Health (1612), 247. The surest remedy that can be deuised for Cupids colts.
a. 1592. Greene & Lodge, Looking Glasse, Wks. (1861), 119/2. Come on, in faith, my colts.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. ii. 44. That’s a colt indeede, for he doth nothing but talke of his horse.
1665. J. Webb, Stone-Heng (1725), 56. Every Colt in Masonry assigns the Weight of a Stone by Measure.
c. 1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Colt … also a Lad newly bound Prentice.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 209. She was a wild, untamed colt.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, V. 445. She’s yet a colt—Take, break her.
1858. E. Waugh, Chirrup, Young Chirrup wur a mettled cowt.
1873. Slang Dict., Colt, a person who sits as juryman for the first time. Ibid., Colt, a professional cricketer during his first season.
d. transf. Coltish nature (cf. BEAST 1 c.).
1727. C. Threlkeld, Stirpes Hibern., B v. [A birch rod] for the magisterial Pædagogue to drive the Colt out of the Man.
† 3. A cunning fellow, a cheat. Obs. rare. (Cf. COLT v. 2.)
1624. Sanderson, Serm., I. 109. An old trick, by which C. Verres, like a cunning colt, often holp him at a pinch.
c. 1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Colt, an Inn-keeper that lends a Horse to a Highway-man.
4. Legal slang. The barrister that attended on a serjeant-at-law at his induction.
1765. E. Wynne, Observ. Degree Serj. at Law, 102. Then Mr. Bailey, his colt, delivered his rings to the Lord Chancellor.
1843. Sir F. Pollock, Remembr. (1887), I. 212. In April I accompanied the newly made Chief Baron as his Colt.
1889. B. C. Robinson, Bench & Bar, 302. He [the colt] walks in (pone) behind his principal, and it is said that the term ‘colt’ is merely a parody on that Latin word.
5. a. Naut. A piece of rope used as an instrument of chastisement. b. slang. A piece of rope with something heavy fastened to the end, used as a weapon.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Bouts de corde, a cat of nine tails, colt or rope’s end for punishment.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, viii. He always carried in his pocket a colt (i. e. a foot and a half of rope, knotted at one end, and whipped at the other) for the benefit of the youngsters.
1873. Slang Dict., Colt, a murderous weapon, formed by slinging a small shot to the end of a rather stiff piece of rope.
1878. E. Yates, Wrecked in Port, xxx. 340. A cabin-boy, about to receive the punishment of the ‘colt’ from the mate.
6. A third swarm of bees in the season.
1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandman, IV. i. 182 (Britten). The Swarm is the first and greatest Number, the Cast is the next greatest, the Colt the next, and the Spew the least of all.
† 7. The plant Lepidium latifolium, otherwise called Dittany. Obs.
1585. Lloyd, Treas. Health, G ij. Colt or detin plasterid vpon the goute, and disese called sciatica, healyth the same.
8. Colt’s tooth. a. lit. One of the first set of teeth of a horse (or ass).
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 435. If they [Asses] do not breed … before the casting of their Colts-teeth, they remain steril … all their life.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 754. Horses have, at three years old … the Colts-tooth.
1689. Lond. Gaz., No. 2421/4. A brown bay Gelding … with Colts Teeth in his Head.
b. fig. Youthful tastes or desires; inclination to wantonness: in certain phrases.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s Prol., 602. But yit I had alway a coltis tothe. Ibid., Reves Prol., 34. And ȝit haue I alwei a coltes toþe.
1588. Greene, Perimedes, Wks. (ed. Grosart), VII. 91. Hee hath beene a wag, but nowe age hath pluckt out all his Coltes teeth.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., I. iii. 48. Well said Lord Sands, Your Colts tooth is not cast yet?
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 151, ¶ 4. About Sixty, which generally produces a Kind of latter Spring in amorous Constitutions, my Aunt Margery had again a Colt’s-Tooth in her Head.
1800. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ld. Auckland’s Triumph, Wks. 1812, IV. 317. His Majesty … Had a Colt’s tooth and loved another Dame.
1841. J. T. Hewlett, Parish Clerk, I. 81. They not shedding their colt’s teeth yet!
9. Comb., as † colt-bridle, colt-like adj.; colt-drift, the drift of ‘colts’ or ponies on Dartmoor (see DRIFT); † colt-herb, † colt’s-hoof = COLTS-FOOT. See also COLT-EVIL, COLTS-FOOT, COLT’S TAIL.
1483. Cath. Angl., 72. A Colte brydylle, lupatum.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Chamæluce, the herbe called coltes hoofe … with a broad leafe like a poplar.
1587. Mascall, Govt. Cattle (Britten & H.), Colt-herb.
1842. Tennyson, St. Simeon Stylites, 174. With colt-like whinny and with hoggish whine.
1885. Sat. Rev., 5 Sept., 322. Some … remnants of authority still left … of the old Forest laws, amongst which is the colt-drift, the ponies being locally called colts.
