Word.ws English Dictionary

horning

horning is the present participle and gerund of horn.

Noun

horning (countable and uncountable, plural hornings)

  1. The activity of blowing the horn of a train.
    • As of this past summer, residents on the Woodside, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens line have been subjected to the same kind of horning, even though our line has no grade crossings and therefore Federal Railroad Administration horn-sounding regulations do not apply.2007 October 21, “A Great New Yark, if They Get It Done; Flying Everyone Home for the Holidays; Those L.I.R.R. Horns: We’ve Had Enough!; Exxon Mobil and Newtown Creek (4 Letters)”, in New York Times
  2. The appearance of the Moon when increasing, or in the form of a crescent.
    • the Horning, which is the cauſe why they ſet up in their Steeples a Creſcent1646, John Gregory, Notes and Observations upon some Passages of Scripture
  3. (US, historical) A mock serenade with tin horns and other discordant instruments by way of showing public disapproval.
  4. (Scotland) The issuing of letters of horning.

Meaning of horn

Verb

horn (third-person singular simple present horns, present participle horning, simple past and past participle horned)

  1. (transitive) Of an animal, to assault with the horns.
  2. (transitive) To furnish with horns.
  3. (obsolete, slang, transitive) To cuckold.
  4. (India, Singapore, intransitive) To sound the horn of a motor vehicle; to honk.
    • , His Precious Gem
      He horned five times but the man didn't moved his car away.

See all 32 meanings of horn

Proper noun capitalized: Horning

Horning

  1. A village and civil parish in Broadland district, Norfolk, England (OS grid ref TG3417).

Forms of horning

pluralhornings

Origin of horning

From Middle English hornynge; equivalent to horn + -ing.

Words formed from horning

Phrases with horning

Questions about horning

What does horning mean?
Horning means the activity of blowing the horn of a train.
What is horning the present participle and gerund of?
Horning is the present participle and gerund of horn.
What part of speech is horning?
Horning can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of horning?
The plural of horning is hornings.

Words near horning in the dictionary

  1. hornify
  2. hornifying
  3. Hornigold
  4. hornily
  5. horniness
  6. horning
  7. horning out
  8. Horninghold
  9. Horninglow
  10. Horninglow and Eton
  11. hornings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: horning (page history and authors); Horning (page history and authors); horn (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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Cite this entry: “horning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/horning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.