hoarse

comparative hoarser · superlative hoarsest

1. Having a dry, harsh tone to the voice, as a result of a sore throat, age, emotion, etc.

   I am old and my voice is hoarse […]

   1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC

present singular third person hoarses · participle present hoarsing · participle past hoarsed · past hoarsed

1. uncommonTo utter hoarsely; to croak.

   "Helene," he croaked, reaching out his arms—his voice tensed with the infinity of his desire. "Back," she iced. And then, "Why have you come here?" she hoarsed. "What business have you here?"

   2022 September 16, Stephen Leacock, Further Foolishness, DigiCat

   2 more examples

   "[...] Madame! Is—that—your—horse?!" "Ain't no horse!" she hoarses. "Thassa thuruly bred Great Dane!" The thuruly bred Great Dane's balls shine like big , bald onions as he squeezes to deposit 4 1⁄2 pounds of vitamin - enriched apcray near the lamp-post.

   1980, Leo Rosten, King Silky!, HarperCollins Children's Books

   "See anything, mum?" she hoarsed. “No—I think it's lower down. Go back to bed, Jane. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. Someone's forgotten something, that's all.” She wanted to get rid of Jane without knowing exactly.

   2022 August 1, J. Jefferson Farjeon, Back to Victoria, DigiCat

plural hoarses

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of horse.

   The 15. 3 mo. 1668 - An act maid in a Towne Meting to provent hoarses and meares from doinge damage, as foloeth. All such hoarses and meares, as comonly kepes about the towne, or in the towne stretes, or comonly doth goe in to the towne neck, […]

   1668, act, quoted in 1912, Sandwich and Bourne, Colony and Town Records, page 20

   1 more example

   […] we got in to Town after Dark on the 18th I staid in Town Mr. Newnon's hoarse got Lame and him & I swapt'd hoarses and Drank whiskey on the 19th he Started home I staid in Town Expecting some intillegence from Mr.Taylor on the 20th we made a Party and went to the Paths and Run every turkey in […]

   , quoted in 1934, The North Carolina Historical Review (and also in 1981, Doris Cline Ward, Charles D. Biddix, The Heritage of Old Buncombe County)