halter
1 Americannoun
-
a rope or strap with a noose or headstall for leading or restraining horses or cattle.
-
a rope with a noose for hanging criminals; the hangman's noose; gallows.
-
death by hanging.
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Also called halter top. a woman's top, secured behind the neck and across the back, leaving the arms, shoulders, upper back, and often the midriff bare.
verb (used with object)
-
halters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
haltered,
past participle, past
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haltering
present participle
-
to put a halter on; restrain as by a halter.
-
to hang (a person).
adjective
noun
-
halteres
plural
noun
noun
noun
-
a rope or canvas headgear for a horse, usually with a rope for leading
-
Also called: halterneck. a style of woman's top fastened behind the neck and waist, leaving the back and arms bare
-
a rope having a noose for hanging a person
-
death by hanging
verb
-
to secure with a halter or put a halter on
-
to hang (someone)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
haltersimple
-
halterssimple
-
have halteredperfect
-
has halteredperfect
-
am halteringprogressive
-
are halteringprogressive
-
is halteringprogressive
-
have been halteringperfect progressive
-
has been halteringperfect progressive
Past
-
halteredsimple
-
had halteredperfect
-
was halteringprogressive
-
were halteringprogressive
-
had been halteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of halter1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English hælfter; cognate with German Halfter
Origin of halter2
First recorded in 1820–25; from New Latin, special use of Latin haltēr “handheld weight used in long jumps,” from Greek háltēr, derivative of hállesthai “to jump, leap,” akin to Latin salīre with the same meaning; see salient
Origin of halter3
Origin of halter4
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English; see origin at halt 2, -er 1
Explanation
A halter is a device that's put on animals to restrain, lead, or train them. Another type of halter is a sleeveless top that ties around the neck. Your dog might wear a halter that keeps her from pulling you down the street, and a farmer might put a halter on a cow before leading her into a milking stall. Another halter is a piece of clothing usually worn by a woman, a shirt that ties behind the neck and leaves the shoulders and arms bare. Originally, halter referred just to the tie that secures the top, but it came to mean the entire garment.
Vocabulary lists containing halter
My Life with the Chimpanzees
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Beowulf
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Life Is So Good
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The bump was on full show in the custom Atelier Prabal Gurung crop top, which the designer described as a "sculptural high-low halter top with a cascading train".
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Silva wore a long sequined gold dress with a halter neckline paired with bangles and gold pumps.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
It included biker jackets adorned with bejeweled crosses and, in the finale, a halter top that featured the Virgin Mary made out of a mosaic of jewels.
From Salon ● May 17, 2026
The Cudahy council’s second-in-command seems to have recorded the clip at a party, judging by her black halter top, bright red lipstick, fresh hairstyle and fancy earrings, with club music thumping in the background.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2025
I took the halter from the gate post, opened the gate, and stepped inside.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
Instead, the flies sense change with two biological gyroscopes called halteres.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2014
The Greeks probably started from a standstill and swung handheld weights, known as halteres, to provide momentum on takeoff and allow them to extend their feet farther forward on landing.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2012
If both halteres are removed, the insect loses its sense of equilibrium, goes into a spin, crashes.
From Time Magazine Archive
Just behind the trailing edge of each wing they had "halteres": small rods with round balls on their ends.
From Time Magazine Archive
Eyes bright red; proboscis a little longer than the thorax; antennæ and legs black; wings slightly greyish, veins black; halteres tawny.
From Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology by Various
Now several of her neighbors raise goats, and the Cloughs can be seen walking their trio through town on halters, or on nearby Canfield Mountain just to get them in shape for the elk-packing season.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 17, 2020
Texas athletics spokesman John Bianco said “all established safety and security measures were in place for Bevo” at the Sugar Bowl, including two halters, two chains and six handlers to hold him.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 1, 2019
Joe and the others hurried to get halters onto their horses before cutting them loose, so they could be caught and identified later.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 29, 2018
There, she grabbed her horses’ halters and ran them to a clearing, where people with horse hauling trailers waited to take them away and firefighting helicopters landed right next to the animals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2016
Some are in jogging shorts and sun halters, some in exercise costumes like the ones they used to show on television, body-tight, with knitted pastel leg warmers.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
Andrea Pfeiffer, the owner of Chocolate Horse Farms, said that one horse refused to be haltered, so she had to leave him behind.
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2017
Years from now, they will be talking about how they haltered and groomed the legendary Stonestreet mare Rachel Alexandra and her beloved son Taco.
From New York Times ● May 31, 2012
Shall the Man of the Year now be haltered by denial of the help he asked for in his Inaugural?
From Time Magazine Archive
He sits soulnaked, haltered in other men's finery.
From Time Magazine Archive
Billy Buck haltered the mare Nellie and led her out of the pasture.
From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck
He flayed Foreign Minister Bonnet of France and the French press for criticizing the House's action in haltering Mr. Roosevelt.
From Time Magazine Archive
"That would be a case of haltering," returned the other, on which everybody laughed again.
From The Captain of the Polestar by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
About the best we had been able to do had been to agree not to burn down each other's frat houses while we were haltering the Freshmen.
From At Good Old Siwash by George Fitch
The directions for haltering are very complete, but to execute them with a colt or horse that paws violently, even in play, with his fore-feet, requires no common agility.
From A New Illustrated Edition of J. S. Rarey's Art of Taming Horses With the Substance of the Lectures at the Round House, and Additional Chapters on Horsemanship and Hunting, for the Young and Timid by J. S. (John Solomon) Rarey
Rope halters have caused more horses to hurt or kill themselves than would pay for twice the cost of all the leather halters that have ever been needed for the purpose of haltering colts.
From A New Illustrated Edition of J. S. Rarey's Art of Taming Horses With the Substance of the Lectures at the Round House, and Additional Chapters on Horsemanship and Hunting, for the Young and Timid by J. S. (John Solomon) Rarey
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
