Word.ws English Dictionary

colt evil

colt evil noun: a swelling in the genitals of horses.

Noun

colt evil (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) A swelling in the genitals of horses.
    • The Colt-evil is a continued Stiffness in a Horse's Yard, and is so call'd, because it is a Disease incident to Colts, and is brought upon them by having full Liberty with Mares while they are not able to cover them […]1722, William Gibson, chapter XLV, in The Farrier's New Guide, 3rd edition
    • The Colt Evil chiefly affects young stoned colts, which have full liberty with mares before they are able to cover them.1838, R Bowers, A Modern and Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Horses
  2. (broadly, obsolete) Priapism.
    • young folks most apt to love, and by their good wills, saith Lucian, ‘would have a bout with every one they see’: the colt's evil is common to all complexions.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III...

Forms of colt evil

alternative formcolt's evil

Questions about colt evil

What does colt evil mean?
Colt evil means a swelling in the genitals of horses.
What part of speech is colt evil?
Colt evil is a noun.

Words near colt evil in the dictionary

  1. Colston
  2. Colston Bassett
  3. Colstons
  4. Colstrip
  5. colt
  6. colt evil
  7. colt's evil
  8. colt's feet
  9. colt's foot
  10. colt's foots
  11. colt's teeth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: colt evil (page history and authors). 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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