HORSE-SHOES

Domain	Definition
Literature	Horse-shoes were at one time nailed up over doors as a protection against witches. Aubrey says, "Most houses at the West-end of London have a horse-shoe on the threshold." In Monmouth Street there were seventeen in 1813, and seven so late as 1855. "Straws laid across my path retard; The horse-shoes nailed, each threshold's Guard." Gay: Fable xxiii. part 1. It is lucky to pick up a horse-shoe. This is from the notion that a horse-shoe was a protection against witches. For the same reason our superstitious forefathers loved to nail a horse-shoe on their house-door. Lord Nelson had one nailed to the mast of the ship Victory. There is a legend that the devil one day asked St. Dunstan, who was noted for his skill in shoeing horses, to shoe his "single hoof." Dunstan, knowing who his customer was, tied him tightly to the wall and proceeded with his job, but purposely put the devil to so much pain that he roared for mercy. Dunstan at last consented to release his captive on condition that he would never enter a place where he saw a horse-shoe displayed. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Photo Album: HORSE-SHOES

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	[Veterinary Medicine: Horse-shoes for normal and corrective shoeing]. Credit: National Library of Medicine.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Usage Frequency: HORSE-SHOES

"HORSE-SHOES" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "HORSE-SHOES" is used about 2 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Anagrams: HORSE-SHOES

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: horseshoes.
	Words within the letters "e-e-h-h-o-o-r-s-s-s"
	-1 letter: horseshoe.
	-3 letters: reshoes, soroses.
	-4 letters: eroses, heroes, horses, reshes, reshoe, rooses, sheers, sheesh, shoers, shores.
	-5 letters: erose, erses, esses, heres, heros, hoers, horse, hoses, roose, roses, seers, seres, sheer, shoer, shoes, shoos, shore, sores.
	Words containing the letters "e-e-h-h-o-o-r-s-s-s"
	+1 letter: horseshoers.
	+3 letters: clotheshorses, phosphoresces.
	+4 letters: thoroughnesses.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.