colt
UK/kəʊlt/
More pronunciations (2)Fewer pronunciations
British/kəwlt/
colt noun: a young male horse.
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Noun (1)
colt (plural colts)
- A young male horse.
- 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
- A young crane (bird).
- A youthful or inexperienced person; a novice.
- 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]...
- A professional cricketer during his first season.
- The bowling is more promising in the colts than in the eleven.1882, The Downside Review, volume 1, page 287
- A person who sits as a juryman for the first time.
- A short piece of rope once used by petty officers as an instrument of punishment.
- A weapon formed by slinging a small shot to the end of a somewhat stiff piece of rope.
- A young camel or donkey.
Verb
colt (third-person singular simple present colts, present participle colting, simple past and past participle colted)
- To horse; to get with young.
- 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...
- To befool.
- 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...
- To frisk or frolic like a colt; to act licentiously or wantonly.
- They shook off their bridles and began to colt.1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […]...
- Synonyms:
- harlotize
- To haze (a new recruit), as by charging a new juryman a "fine" to be spent on alcoholic drink, or by striking the sole of his foot with a board, etc.
- We watched our opportunity, seized him, and, laying him across a chest, we colted him with a boot-jack until we nearly killed him, he at the time suffering from numerous boils in the nates; and for all this he obtained no redress!1849, The Lancet, page 53
- […] his first appearance the jury duly "colted" him.1923, Notes and Queries, page 153
Proper noun capitalized: Colt
Colt (countable and uncountable, plural Colts)
- A surname originating as an occupation.
- A male given name transferred from the surname.
- It took two years for Colt and his extended family to find the ideal land on which to spend the rest of their lives.2025 March 30, Scottie Andrew, “Queer and trans homesteaders are conquering the social media frontier”, in CNN
- A town in St. Francis County, Arkansas, United States.
- An unincorporated community in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States.
Noun (2) capitalized: Colt
Colt (plural Colts)
- A revolver (gun) (from Colt's Manufacturing Company), associated especially but not exclusively with the American Wild West.
- He shaved and managed to pull on a clean shirt and trousers. He put a fresh clip in his Beretta and wrapped the Colt in his discarded shirt and put it in his suitcase.1954, Ian Fleming, “True or False?”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 87
- Only in it she held a derringer in her hand, not a Colt. But that look of disbelief on Leonard's face could not have been more real.1993, Judith Pella, Frontier Lady (Lone Star Legacy Book #1), Baker Books, →ISBN
colt meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
colt in Hindi
- a colt
- बछेरा bacherā
colt in Tamil
- இளம் ஆண் குதிரை, கழுதைக்குட்டி, குதிரைக்குட்டி, பரிக்குருளை
colt in Marathi
- कोल्ट, कोलट
colt in Urdu
- اناڑی, بچھیڑا, نامزدہ
More languagesFewer languages
- colt in Bengali
- কোল্ট, কল্ট, কোলট
- colt in Telugu
- కోల్ట్, కోల్ట్కి, కోల్ట్కు
- colt in Malayalam
- കഴുതക്കുട്ടി kaḻutakkuṭṭi, കുതിരക്കുട്ടി kutirakkuṭṭi
- colt in Kannada
- ಬಾಲ bāla
- colt in Punjabi
- ਵਛੇਰਾ vacherā
- colt in Gujarati
- વછેરો vachero
- colt in Odia
- ବାଛରା bācharā
- colt in Sanskrit
- किशोर kiśorá
- colt in Nepali
- कोल्ट
- colt in Malay
- kuda jantan muda
Synonyms of colt
Forms of colt
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | colts |
| plural | Colts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | colts |
| present participle | colting |
| past participle | colted |
| past | colted |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Colts |
Origin of colt
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.
From colt, as a nickname or occupational name for someone who looked after horses and asses. The given name may also be short for Colton. The revolver is named after American inventor Samuel Colt (1814–1862).
Words formed from colt
Words that rhyme with colt
Questions about colt
- What does colt mean?
- Colt means a young male horse.
- What is colt in Hindi?
- Colt in Hindi is बछेरा (bacherā). See Colt meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is colt?
- Colt can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce colt?
- Colt is pronounced /kəʊlt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of colt?
- The plural of colt is colts.
Words near colt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: colt (page history and authors); Colt (page history and authors); बछेरा (Hindi) (page history and authors); colt (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); colt (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); colt (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); colt (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); colt (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); കഴുതക്കുട്ടി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಬಾಲ (Kannada) (page history and authors); વછેરો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ବାଛରା (Odia) (page history and authors); किशोर (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); colt (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “colt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/colt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.