horse-drench

English

Noun

horse-drench (plural horse-drenches)

1. (archaic) A dose of medicine for a horse.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     The most soueraigne Prescription in Galen, is but Emperickqutique; and to this Preseruatiue, of no better report
     then a Horse-drench.

2. (archaic) The appliance by which the dose is administered.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “horse-drench”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)