Meanings
nounmossy horn (plural mossy horns)
plural mossy horns
- USAn aged steer.
The Kid had come from Texas with a trail heard, and he was as ornery as any mossy-horn.
1948, Dorothy M. Johnson, Beyond the Frontier; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 129
Origin
From mossy (“referring to the fact that horns become wrinkly and scaly with age”) + horn.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
mossy horn. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mossy%20horn
MLA
“mossy horn.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mossy%20horn. Accessed November 5, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mossy horn,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mossy%20horn.
Source: mossy horn on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.