arch. [f. as prec.] trans. To give ‘horns’ to, to ‘horn’; i.e., to make a cuckold of.
1597. Lyly, Woman in Moone, III. ii. I have done this to cornute my maister.
1633. Ford, Love’s Sacr., IV. i. You are most shamefully … most scornfully cornuted.
1710. Hearne, Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), III. 89.
| O’regrown in Sin, cornuted, and in Debt; | |
| Nol’s Soul, & Ireton’s live within him yet. |
1885. Athenæum, 2 May, 577. He [Iago] vehemently suspects that Emilia and Othello have cornuted him.
b. lit. (nonce-use.)
1831. Carlyle, Nibel. Lied, in Misc. Ess. (1888), III. 124. Let no one … fancy that our brave Siegfried … was actually cornuted, and had horns on his brow.
Hence Cornuting vbl. sb.
1640. Shirley, Hum. Court., IV. i. Some city-heir That would … pay for his cornuting.
1772. Town & Country Mag., 23/1. He had himself been a capital offender in the cornuting way.
