horse-blockn.
1. A small platform, usually of stone, ascended by three or four steps, for convenience in mounting a horse; (also) a portable structure of wood, or the like, for the same purpose.
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society > travel > transport > riding on horse (or other animal) > [noun] > mounting a horse > mounting-block
mounting place1490
riding block1570
block1614
mounting block1659
horsing stone1661
horsing-block1662
upping-stocka1697
joss-block1706
horse-block1713
mounting stone1794
upping-block1796
upping-stone1809
horse-steps1828
leaping-on-stone1837
stepping-stone1837
stirrup-stone1838
pillion stone1907
1713 Charlestown Land Rec. 207 Heatons Seller door & hors block [is] in the high way.
1721 in Vestry Bk. Bristol, Va., 1720–89 (1898) 7 To Mr. Luis Green junr. for a horse-block.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Horse-block, in the manege.
1798 Sporting Mag. 11 79 Near the gate a horse block, for the conveniency of mounting.
1854 R. W. Emerson Poetry & Imag. in Wks. (1906) III. 143 The old horse~block in the yard.
1889 C. F. Woolson Jupiter Lights i. 9 A horse-block with a flight of steps attached was brought, and placed in position for the visitor's descent.
2. ‘A square frame of strong boards, used by excavators to elevate the ends of their wheeling-planks’ (Gwilt Archit. 1842–76).
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society > occupation and work > equipment > earth-moving and excavating equipment > [noun] > other equipment
snow-plough1792
road roller1820
horse-block1825
sludger1839
horsing-block1856
channeller1867
grader1869
push plough1890
snowblade1947
ripper1953
mouldboard1956
groomer1966
1825 J. Neal Brother Jonathan II. 12 Lolling about over the horse-blocks, timber, and shingles.
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3. Shipbuilding. ‘A grating or platform elevated above the deck at the height of the rail, for the use of the officers of the deck’ ( Cent. Dict.).
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1899; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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