DictionaryAI

horny

adjective
USHOR-nee/ˈhoɹni/UKHAW-nee/ˈhɔːni/

Formshornier, horniest

4 meanings of horny

Practice

  1. 1
    sexual desireadjectiveslang
    Feeling sexual desire or sexually aroused, whether or not the body shows it.

    After weeks apart, they were both feeling pretty horny by the time he got home.

    Warm weather always seems to make him hornier.

    UsageFrank but not obscene: fine among friends, out of place at work or in formal writing.

    Similararoused, randy, lustful, frisky, hot

    Note

    In late eighteenth-century slang an erection was a horn, the horn being a hard projection, and horny grew out of that usage as a word of its own.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

  2. 2
    hard and bonyadjective
    Hard, thick, or tough like horn, and sometimes pale like it, as of skin or a growth.

    Decades of farm work had left his palms thick and horny.

    The parrot cracked the nut open with its horny beak.

    Similarcallused, hard, tough, leathery

    Oppositesoft

    Note

    The physical word is horn plus -y, from Middle English, with relatives in German hornig and Old English hyrniġ, "angular". It suits skin and tissue toughened like horn: the horny little hands of the dwarfs in C. S. Lewis's Prince Caspian (1951), a parrot's beak.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

  3. 3
    sexyadjectiveslang
    Arousing sexual desire in other people.

    She told her mates the bloke behind the bar was well horny and dared one of them to go and get his number.

    The music video was meant to be horny, but most viewers just found it silly.

    Similararousing, hot, alluring, desirable, attractive

    Note

    Here the word describes the effect on the onlooker, not the feeling of the person described: when Mark Corrigan in Peep Show imagines a nurse looking pretty horny as Batman, he means arousing to look at.

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Mark Corrigan is the character in Peep Show who imagines her looking pretty horny as Batman. en.wiktionary.org
    • The woman in the scene is a nurse; Wiktionary's bracketed identification as a dentist is erroneous. en.wikipedia.org
    • In this example, horny means sexually arousing to look at. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    with head spikesadjective
    Having a horn or horns.

    Growing up in Oklahoma, she caught horny toads in the backyard and let them go at dusk.

    The horny toad's spiky head makes it look like a tiny dinosaur.

    UsageMostly in horny toad; for other animals, horned is usual.

    Similarhorned

    Oppositehornless

    Note

    One name keeps this sense alive: horny toad, the everyday term for horned lizards, which are lizards and not toads at all.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Horny toads are horned lizards, not toads. nps.gov

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of horny apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 2, 4

Already horny in Middle English, the word is simply horn with -y added. Old English hyrniġ, which meant "angular," is a similar formation, as are Swedish hornaktig, Dutch hoornachtig, and German hornig.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  • Horny existed in Middle English and is formed from horn plus -y. en.wiktionary.org
  • Old English hyrniġ meant “angular” and is a comparable formation, alongside Swedish hornaktig, Dutch hoornachtig, and German hornig. en.wiktionary.org
Meanings 1, 3

From horn, late 18th-century slang for an erection, plus -y. First recorded in the late 1800s meaning lecherous or full of sexual desire, it is now used of men and women alike.

Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

  • Related horn expressions referred to male physical arousal in the eighteenth century. archive.org
  • Sexual horn represents an erection as a horn. en.wiktionary.org