THE BLACK OX HAS TROD ON HIS FOOT, phr. (old).—Said of one worn with age, care, or misfortune: see quot.
1748. RICHARDSON, Clarissa, I. 344. Was he not known to have been as wild a man, when he was at first introduced into our family, as he now is said to be? Yet then, the common phrase of wild oats, and black oxen, and such like were qualifiers.
