Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A young female horse, especially a racehorse less than five years old, or a young female of another equine species.
  • noun Informal A lively, high-spirited girl or young woman.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To foal, as a mare.
  • noun A female colt or foal; a young mare.
  • noun A young woman; a lively, hoydenish, or wanton girl.
  • noun Synonyms Colt, etc. See pony.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A female foal or colt; a young mare. Cf. colt, foal.
  • noun colloq. A lively, spirited young girl.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A young female horse.
  • noun dated A young attractive female.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a young female horse under the age of four

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English filli, from Old Norse fylja; see pau- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse fylja (whence Danish føl).

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Examples

Comments

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  • "to play" in Nadsat

    January 7, 2009

  • A “filly” is never a colt and a colt is never a filly. This is as true as the FACT that a woman can never be a man and a man can never be a woman. Who, in this insane woke world wrote your definition?

    June 10, 2023

  • Hey deadwoodcarl, and welcome. Trans rights are human rights, gender is not a binary, and language changes all the time.

    To respond to your specific comment: the definitions on this site clearly show their sources, some of which are historical and out of date, none of which are created by Wordnik. The intention of dictionaries is not to police or litigate usage, but to reflect how terms are actually used. Sometimes people use filly to mean a young horse, regardless of that horse's gender, so one dictionary source (GCIDE) chose to represent that usage. Part of why Wordnik pulls from many sources is to give a broader perspective about how terms are perceived by different sources over time. I hope that answers your question.

    June 11, 2023

  • Thank you for your comment to @deadwoodcarl, tankhughes. Those of us who have been here a long time, some of us (like me as frogapplause) when wordnik was wordie... forget that new people wander in and have questions and concerns. Too bad this explanation will be buried with this word and won't be out front like a welcome mat.

    June 11, 2023

  • Huh. There's actually some interesting stuff over on colt--especially when you look at the old Century Dictionary definitions. (Always a pleasant surprise when the Century isn't being creepy.)

    And don't get me started on gelding.

    June 12, 2023