horny

American  

[hawr-nee] / ˈhɔr ni /

adjective

hornier, comparative horniest superlative

1. consisting of a horn or a hornlike substance; corneous.

2. having a horn or horns or hornlike projections; horned.

3. hornlike as a result of hardening; callous.

   horny hands.

4. Slang: Vulgar.

   1. lustful.

   2. sexually excited.

5. Archaic. semiopaque or somewhat translucent, like horn.

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horny British  

/ ˈhɔːnɪ /

adjective

1. of, like, or hard as horn

2. having a horn or horns

3. slang

   1. sexually aroused

   2. provoking or intended to provoke sexual arousal

   3. sexually eager or lustful

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• horniness
  noun
• hornily
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Adjectives

• hornier
  comparative
• horniest
  superlative

Etymology

Origin of horny

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; horn + -y ¹

Explanation

Things that are horny either look like or are made of an animal’s horn or a similar hard material. The thick, hard nail on your big toe could be described as horny. The word horny, describing the bony projection on an animal's head, appeared in English before the 10th century. An informal meaning — that of being sexually aroused — appeared later. Male physical arousal was crudely referred to as "having the horn” in the late 18th century before becoming the word horny in the mid-19th century. First used exclusively for men, the word now describes women's sexual feelings as well.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

horny hornier horniest

As a kid in the 1990s, I wandered this desert freely, catching iguanas when I couldn’t find horny toads.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2022

Dr. Turner suggests the meshlike structures closely resemble the fiber networks of modern keratose sponges, also known as horny sponges, found around the world today.

From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2021

Indeed, the university rescinded admission offers for at least 10 prospective students in 2017 over offensive comments they had made in a private Facebook group called “Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens”.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 19, 2019

Apart from the tusks, dicynodonts were mostly toothless, with a horny beak like modern-day turtles.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 22, 2018

He prowled about by Mrs. Coulter’s sleeping bag, scratching with a little horny finger at the occasional glowflies that settled in the cave and smearing their luminescence over the rock.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

The glass, again, though elegant and quaint, and very varied in form, was somewhat bubbled and hornier in texture than the commercial articles of the nineteenth century. 

From News from Nowhere, or, an Epoch of Rest : being some chapters from a utopian romance by Morris, William

Like I said mate, I've been a surfin fool, I'm the horniest I have been for surfing in years.

From Time Magazine Archive