horseshoe

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A flat U-shaped metal plate fitted and nailed to the bottom of a horse's hoof for protection.
2. n. A U-shaped object similar to a horseshoe.
3. n. A game in which players toss horseshoes or horseshoe-shaped metal pieces at a stake so as to encircle it or come closer to it than the other players.
4. v. To fit with horseshoes.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A shoe for a horse, consisting commonly of a narrow plate of iron bent into a form somewhat resembling the letter U, so as to accommodate itself to the shape of the horse's foot. Its parts are the toe, the two heels, the quarters between the toe and the heels, the calks, or projections from the lower part of each heel, the clip, a kind of claw, usually at the upper edge of the toe, for protecting the hoof and assisting in keeping the shoe in place, and the fullering, or crease in the lower face, in which the nail-holes, usually eight, are punched. The horseshoe, in its most primitive form, is of great antiquity. An old and very popular superstition, almost universally prevalent among peasantry, ascribes to the horseshoe (especially to one which has been found in the road by chance) the power of barring the passage of witches. For this purpose the shoe is nailed to the door or the threshold.
2. n. Anything shaped like a horseshoe. Specifically— A loop-like bend in a river.
3. n. In zoology: A horseshoe-crab.
4. n. A bivalve mollusk, Lutraria elliptica. Also called clump.
5. n. plural The game of quoits, in which horseshoes are often used for pitching.
6. To provide with horseshoes, or shape like a horseshoe.
7. In architecture, to carry inward at the imposts, as an arch, so as to bring it approximately to the form of horseshoe.
8. n. Nautical, a composition strap bent in the form of horseshoe and used for fastening the stem to the keel.

Wiktionary

1. n. The U-shaped metallic shoe of a horse.
2. n. A U-shaped piece of metal used to play the game horseshoes.
3. n. The U shape of a horseshoe.
4. n. bodybuilding, slang A well-developed set of triceps brachii muscles.
5. n. logic The symbol ⊃.
6. v. To apply horseshoes to a horse.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A shoe for horses, consisting of a narrow plate of iron in form somewhat like the letter U, nailed to a horse's hoof.
2. n. Anything shaped like a horsehoe, such as a U-shaped bend in a river.
3. n. (Zoöl.) The Limulus or horsehoe crab.
4. n. A game in which horseshoes or horseshoe-shaped objects (usually made of metal) are thrown at either of two stakes fixed in the ground at a distance of 30 to 40 feet apart. The player stands at or near one stake and throws several the horseshoes at the other stake. Points are scored when the player throws the horseshoe so that it surrounds the stake; fewer points are scored if the horseshoe is close to but not surrounding the stake. The players take turns and the first player to achieve the target score wins.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. U-shaped plate nailed to underside of horse's hoof
2. v. equip (a horse) with a horseshoe or horseshoes
3. n. game equipment consisting of an open ring of iron used in playing horseshoes