a.
1. Of or pertaining to, or lasting for, three years; of the age of three years.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 7 April. We having already … spent one year’s share of the three-years tax.
1727. [Dorrington], Philip Quarll (1816), 37. They set sail for a three years voyage.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., I. iv. The Wedding-Guest stood still, And listens like a three years child.
2. Three-year-old, of the age of three years; spec. of horses; also, of three years’ standing, that has been such for three years. Also three years old.
1825. Bentham, Offic. Apt. Maximized, Observ. Peel’s Sp. (1830), 10. Exclusion of all Barristers but three-year-old ones. Ibid., 13. Three years old Barristers.
1838. Penny Cycl., XII. 307/2. A three-year-old colt.
1894. Field, 9 June, 850/3. A three-year-old animal may have all the permanent incisors well up.
1910. Westm. Gaz., 2 April, 7/3. A strange story of an alleged three-year-old treaty between Russia and China.
b. absol. or as sb.; also attrib.
1617. in T. Pont’s Topogr. Acc. Cunningham (Maitland Cl.), 200. Saxtein auld kye … Item, thrie thrie-yeir-aldis.
1825. Bentham, Offic. Apt. Maximized, Observ. Peel’s Sp. (1830), 18. Turn now to the three year olds [i.e., barristers]
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. (ed. 2), § 119. By Training the three-year-old is understood the preparation of the colt for racing as a three-year-old, in his fourth year.
1882. Daily News, 26 Dec., 3/5. Not only in the three-year-old prizes did the fillies make their mark.
So Three-yearling a. = three-year-old.
1621. Ainsworth, Annot. Pentat. (1639), 58. Take unto thee a three-yeerling heiffer and a three-yeerling she goat.
