Definitions

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

  • adjective Having horns or hornlike projections.
  • adjective Made of horn or a similar substance.
  • adjective Tough and calloused.
  • adjective Desirous of sexual activity.
  • adjective Sexually aroused.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Consisting or composed of horn, or something like horn; corneous.
  • Resembling horn; hard or otherwise like horn; callous: as, horny hands.
  • Specifically — In entomology, chitinous: used to designate any hard part of the integument or interior organs of an insect.
  • In botany, hard and close in texture, but not brittle, as the albumen of many plants.
  • In sponges, fibrous; ceratodous, as an ordinary sponge, as distinguished from a chalk-sponge or a glass-sponge.
  • Having a horn or horns; having corns, callosities, or processes like horns.
  • noun The devil, as usually represented with horns: generally with the prefix old (Scotch auld.) Also spelled Hornie.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having horns or hornlike projections.
  • adjective Composed or made of horn, or of a substance resembling horn; of the nature of horn.
  • adjective Hard; callous.

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

  • adjective Hard or bony, like an animal's horn.
  • adjective Having horns
  • adjective informal, vulgar Sexually aroused.
  • adjective informal Sexually arousing.

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

  • adjective feeling great sexual desire
  • adjective having horns or hornlike projections
  • adjective made of horn (or of a substance resembling horn)

Etymologies

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

[Sense 4, from horn, an erection.]

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Examples

  • It doesn't contain anything terribly offensive, though the premiere does mention the existence of sex between alligators and use the word "horny."

    Wired Top Stories Matt Blum 2011

  • And the images you conjure with "straddling glowing globes and caressing the giant W" makes us sound so freakin 'horny ... oh wait ... nevermind.

    Blogger Bender - Part II kittenpie 2007

  • I also wonder in how many cases people think that giving someone a pill that makes her horny is a lot easier than actually trying to, you know, like, find out what she likes.

    Dysfunction or Dissatisfaction? 2005

  • The more superficial layers of cells, called the horny layer (stratum corneum), may be separated by maceration from a deeper stratum, which is called the stratum mucosum, and which consists of several layers of differently shaped cells.

    X. The Organs of the Senses and the Common Integument. 2. The Common Integument 1918

  • _ He was called horny because, when he slew the dragon, he bathed in its blood, and became covered with a horny hide which was invulnerable.

    Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 Ebenezer Cobham Brewer 1853

  • The men on her dating site, which weeds out the opportunists, "want me to make that distinction - they're tired of being called horny frat boys," she says.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2011

  • The men on her dating site, which weeds out the opportunists, "want me to make that distinction - they're tired of being called horny frat boys," she says.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2011

  • The men on her dating site, which weeds out the opportunists, "want me to make that distinction - they're tired of being called horny frat boys," she says.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2011

  • This one in particular - courtesy commenter extraordinaire Upstate Underdog - will make you dance AND get you horny, which is one of my favorite states of consciousness.

    Kissing Suzy Kolber Captain Caveman 2010

  • I recall a horny looking young lady (the lady part of that descriptive I use very loosely for reasons explained later) who worked in our cookhouse for a while.

    Army Rumour Service 2010

Comments

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  • C'mon, how can I not like this word? 'nuff said.

    March 4, 2007