See Also: horseshoe(dictionary)
Horseshoe(tourism)
horseshoe(medicine)
horseshoe(dictionary)
horseshoe kidney(medicine)
horseshoe placenta(medicine)
horseshoe fistula(medicine)
horseshoe crabs(medicine)
horseshoe crab(encyclopedia)
horseshoe pitching(encyclopedia)

horseshoe (iou)



horseshoe noun & adjective. ME.
[from HORSE noun + SHOE noun.]
A. noun.
A shoe for a horse, now formed of a narrow band of iron etc. shaped to the outline of the hard part of the hoof and secured by nails driven through the hoof wall. Also, this or a representation of this as a good-luck charm. ME.
b. In pl. A game resembling quoits in which horseshoes are thrown at a peg. Chiefly N. Amer. E19.
Something shaped like a horseshoe or a circular arc larger than a semicircle. L15.
B. Stoker I read that every known superstition..is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians. Road Racer Spencer leapt away from the flag, and led round the first horseshoe.
b. Logic. = HOOK noun 10d. E20.
= horseshoe-vetch below. Now rare. L16.
b. attrib. or as adjective. Having the shape of a horseshoe. L18.
M. Twain The water cuts the alluvial banks of the 'lower' river into deep horseshoe curves. Graphic The delegates took their places..at a horseshoe table.
Comb. & special collocations: horseshoe bat any of various mainly tropical Old World bats of the genus Rhinolophus and family Rhinolophidae, usu. having a horseshoe-shaped ridge on the nose; horseshoe crab any of several large marine arthropods, the only members of the chelicerate class Merostomata (subclass Xiphosura), having a horseshoe-shaped carapace and a long tail-spine, esp. the N. American Limulus polyphemus; a king crab; horseshoe-vetch a leguminous plant of calcareous grassland, Hippocrepis comosa, with heads of bright yellow flowers and pods breaking into horseshoe-shaped segments.