holstein

plural holsteins

1. rareAlternative letter-case form of Holstein (“breed of cattle”).

   For Sale—Three registered holstein cows. Due to freshen the first of Jan. February and March. Prices that will sell. Age three and five years. Eugene Gibson, Smyrna.

   1919 January, in The Chenango County Farm Bureau News, volume 5, number 1, page 7

   1 more example

   The farm bureau, through subscriptions from members, was able to give a holstein bull calf and a trio of fowls as prizes in a contest among the winners of the six districts.

   1915, Floyd S. Barlow, Otsego County, in the Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, page 2173

1. A geographic region and former duchy between the rivers Elbe and Eider, to the south of Schleswig, part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

   Schleswig refuses to be separated from Holstein.

   1880, Nassau William, senior, Conversations with distinguished persons during the Second Empire, volume 1, page 206

   Synonyms: Holsatia

plural Holsteins

1. A breed of dairy cattle, distinctively colored in splotches of black and white.

   At the height of things, Bride Lake Farms had milked a herd of sixty-five registered Holsteins. Every other day, the Hood Dairy truck would pull up, pump nine thousand pounds of raw milk out of the tank, and drive it off for processing.

   2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.5, at p.117

   Synonyms: Friesian

2. A breed of horse, thought to be the oldest of the warmblood breeds, used in show jumping.

   Synonyms: Holsteiner

plural Holsteins

1. A surname.