Colt Meaning
/kəʊlt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA young male horse.
nounA young crane (bird).
Sentence Examples
The wildest colt makes the best horse.
The mother fed the newborn colt.
The colt reared and threw the tall rider.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The young ____ ran playfully across the green pasture behind its mother.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The young ____ ran freely across the green pasture.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English colt, from Old English colt, from Proto-Germanic *kultaz (“plump; stump; thick shape, bulb”), from Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (“something round, pregnant belly, child in the womb”), from *gel- (“to ball up, amass”). Cognate with Faroese koltur (“colt, foal”) Norwegian kult (“treestump”), Swedish kult (“young boar, piglet, boy, lad”) / Swedish kulting (“piglet”). Related to child.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The petty vices of boys are like the innocent kicks of colts, as yet imperfectly broken."
— 1857, Herman Melville, chapter XXII, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade:
"Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but / talk of his horse, and he makes it a great appropriation to / his own good parts that he can shoe him himself."
— c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], line 38:
"The bowling is more promising in the colts than in the eleven."
— 1882, The Downside Review, volume 1, page 287:
"Never talk on't: / She hath been colted by him."
— 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], line 133:
"What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?"
— c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 36:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The young ____ ran playfully across the green pasture behind its mother.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The young ____ ran freely across the green pasture.