Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The part of the hind leg of a horse or related animal between the stifle and the hock.
  • noun Obsolete Galligaskins.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The sweet cherry, Prunus avium.
  • noun The common gooseberry.
  • noun The hinder part of a horse's thigh, extending from the stifle to the bend of the hock.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun in the plural trousers, hose
  • noun part of the hind leg of a horse, which is between the stifle and the hock.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun lower part of a horse's thigh between the hock and the stifle

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably short for galligaskins.]

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Examples

  • Posted 05/30/2008 by elizabeth1 breech babies are born naturally everyday without any intervention ... ina may gaskin anyone??? free thinkers .... just 'cause you are to the camera boen doesnt mean you are a natural anything!

    Angelina Jolie Uncensored!: Vanity Fair Fair, Vanity 2008

  • Fantastic stuff: There's an exhaust gaskin, as I believe it's called, the most magnificent battery, and it'll be a great opportunity to find out how brakes work.

    Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Rowling, J. K. 2007

  • The wounds had sprawled from cannon to hock to gaskin and were reaching toward the thigh.

    Ms Longshot Kurtz, Sylvie 2005

  • He was clothed with tatters of old ship's canvas and old sea-cloth, and this extraordinary patchwork was all held together by a system of the most various and incongruous fastenings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry gaskin.

    Treasure Island 1883

  • The _gaskin_ (19) is the part of the leg immediately above the hock and bounded at the rear by the hamstring.

    The Horsewoman A Practical Guide to Side-Saddle Riding, 2nd. Ed. Alice M. Hayes 1873

  • The term, _thigh_, is usually applied to the part of the hind leg above the gaskin; but, correctly speaking, it is the part of the hind leg above the stifle.

    The Horsewoman A Practical Guide to Side-Saddle Riding, 2nd. Ed. Alice M. Hayes 1873

  • He was clothed with tatters of old ships 'canvas and old sea-cloth, and this extraordinary patchwork was all held together by a system of the most various and incongruous fastenings, brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry gaskin.

    Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson 1872

  • Fantastic stuff: There’s an exhaust gaskin, as I believe it’s called, the most magnificent battery, and it’ll be a great opportunity to find out how brakes work.

    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Rowling, J. K. 2007

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  • Citation on withers.

    July 4, 2008