Meanings
alternative colt's evil
- obsoleteuncountableA swelling in the genitals of horses.
The Colt Evil chiefly affects young stoned colts, which have full liberty with mares before they are able to cover them.
1838, R Bowers, A Modern and Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Horses1 more example
The Colt-evil is a continued Stiffness in a Horse's Yard, and is so call'd, because it is a Disease incident to Colts, and is brought upon them by having full Liberty with Mares while they are not able to cover them […]
1722, William Gibson, chapter XLV, in The Farrier's New Guide, 3rd edition - broadlyobsoleteuncountablePriapism.
young folks most apt to love, and by their good wills, saith Lucian, ‘would have a bout with every one they see’: the colt's evil is common to all complexions.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III, section 2, member 2, subsection i
Cite this entry
colt evil. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/colt%20evil
“colt evil.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/colt%20evil. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “colt evil,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/colt%20evil.
Source: colt evil on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.