subs. (pugilistic).—A smart blow on the ear. [BUCKHORSE, a celebrated ‘bruiser’ was a man who either possessed, or professed, insensibility to pain, and who would for a small sum allow anyone to strike him with the utmost force on the side of the face. His real name was John Smith, and he fought in public 1732–46.]
1864. Blackwood’s Magazine, II., 463 (the Public Schools’ Report, 1864—Westminster School). One of the Seniors informs us that the common punishment was BUCKHORSING. ‘That was boxing the ears, was it?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘BUCKHORSING was rather severe, was it not?’ etc. ‘I got BUCKHORSED pretty often.’
1876. LORD ALBEMARLE, Fifty Years of my Life, quoted in Temple Bar, August, 1884, 517. He then felled me to the ground by a swinging BUCKHORSE on my right cheek.
