horny

American  

[hawr-nee] / ˈhɔr ni /

adjective

hornier, horniest

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

• hornily adverb
• horniness noun

Etymology

Origin of horny

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

Example Sentences

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

But the history of many classic cartoons is not well-documented, he said, and there just might be some tie to the Texas horny toad.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 2, 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Indeed, the university rescinded admission offers for at least 10 prospective students in 2017 over offensive comments they had made in a private Facebook group called “Harvard memes for horny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

We’d catch scorpions and snakes and horny toads.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls