windsucker

Noun

windsucker (plural windsuckers)

1. A horse with the habit of windsucking.
   • In a later case a Horse was bought warranted "sound and free from vice," and an action was brought against the vendor on the ground of its being a Crib-biter and Wind-sucker[…]. Veterinary Surgeons were examined who said that the habit of Crib-biting was injurious to Horses; that the air sucked...1847, George Henry Hewit Oliphant, “III. [Diseases, Defects or Alterations in Structure, and Bad Habits.]”, in The Law Concerning Horses, Racing, Wagers and Gaming; with an Appendix Containing Recent...
   • Cribbing is scarcely a disease, though it may be productive of disease of the larynx. It is a habit usually acquired by young horses, either in idle moments or by imitation, often from the dam. The colt takes any wooden substance, such as a paling or manger, between his teeth and gnaws it. From...1892, [Frederick Tynte] Warburton, “Accidents and Diseases”, in The Race Horse: How to Buy, Train, and Run Him, London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company Limited, St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, Fleet...
2. (archaic) The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus).
   • At the ſame time (over and above) ſhee thought that, in ſtead of a boye, (which ſhe desired) ſhe was deliverd and brought to bed of one of theſe kiſtrell birds, called a wind-ſucker.1596, Thomas Nashe, Haue vvith You to Saffron-vvalden. Or, Gabriell Harueys Hunt is vp: […], London: […] Iohn Danter, →OCLC; reprinted as John Payne Collier, editor, Have with You to Saffron-Walden...
   • Yes, and a goshawk was his father, for aught we know; for I am sure his mother was a wind-sucker.
     In the 1662 (1st) edition, the word is indicated as wind-fucker.1622 (first performance), William Shakespeare; William Rowley [probably by William Rowley alone], The Birth of Merlin; or, The Childe hath Found His Father. As it hath been Several Times Acted with...
3. (archaic, derogatory) A term of abuse.
   • Cle[rimont] Did you ever hear ſuch a Wind-ſucker, as this? / Dau[phine] Or ſuch a Rook as the other! that will betray his Maſter to be ſeen. Come, 'tis time we prevented it.1609 December (first performance), Ben Jonson, “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Works of Beniamin Jonson, […] (Third Folio), London: […] Thomas Hodgkin, for H[enry] Herringman...
   • For ſhame then let not this wind-ſucker, / At our diſgrace thus ſneer and ſnicker.1678, Virgil, John Phillips, Maronides; or, Virgil Travesty, being a New Paraphrase, in Burlesque Verse, upon the Fifth and Sixth Book of Virgil’s Æneids, London: Printed for Obadiah Blagrave, at the...

   Synonyms:

   fuckwind, windfucker, windhover