neigh - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Audio recording of a neighing horse

From Middle English neyen, from Old English hnǣġan, from Proto-West Germanic *hnaijan, from Proto-Germanic *hnajjaną (“to neigh”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch neien, Middle Low German neigen, Swedish gnägga, Icelandic hneggja.

neigh (plural neighs)

  1. The cry of a horse.
    Synonym: neighing
    Hyponyms: nicker, whinny

the cry of a horse

neigh (third-person singular simple present neighs, present participle neighing, simple past and past participle neighed)

  1. (of a horse) To make its cry.
    Hyponyms: nicker, whinny
    • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Democritus Iunior to the Reader”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, page 41:
      For hovv […] ſhall I knovv thee to be a man, vvhen thou kickeſt like an aſſe, neygheſt like an Horſe after vvomen, raueſt in luſt like a Bull, raueneſt like a Beare, ſtingeſt like a Scorpion, rakeſt like a VVolfe, as ſuttle as a Foxe, as impudent as a Dogge; ſhall I ſay thou art man that haſt all the Symptomes of a beaſt?
    • 1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [_i.e._, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], translated by H. L. Brækstad, Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 33:
      "I went into the stable first to see to the horse, and found him neighing and waiting for his hay, so I went up into the hay-loft for an armful[.]"
  2. To make a sound similar to a horse's cry.
  3. (obsolete) To scoff or sneer.

(of a horse) to make its cry

to make a sound similar to a horses' cry

Translations to be checked