1. A light-armed cavalry soldier.
1548. Patten, Exped. Scotl., A ij b. Suche … lighte horsemen as were comen.
1558. Nottingham Rec., IV. 118. Consernyng the light horsse men settyng furthe.
1600. R. Churche, trans. Fumée’s Hist. Hungary, 32. Certaine of his light horsemen (who are commonly called Vssarons).
1787. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 226. A light-horseman … was discovered near the bridge on the American side.
fig. 1899. Q. Rev., April, 461. It countenanced all the unscrupulous light-horsemen of debate.
2. A slang name for one of a class of Thames thieves. (Cf. HORSEMAN 5.)
1800. Colquhoun, Comm. Thames, 59. The gangs, denominated Light Horsemen were generally composed of one or more Receivers, together with Coopers, Watermen, and Lumpers.
1849. [see HORSEMAN 5].
1899. Daily News, 9 Jan., 6/1. ‘Light Horsemen’ would look out for a lighter having valuable goods on board, and at night, stealing up quietly, would cut her adrift: then following her, as she floated down with the tide, would by-and-by rescue her, and bring her back, claiming salvage.
† 3. ‘An old name for the light boat, since called a gig’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.). Obs.
1600. J. Jane, in Hakluyt, Voy., III. 843. His long boat and light-horseman were lost at sea.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (1844), 1. We came to Gravesend … in a light-horseman.
1656. Finett, For. Ambass., 220. Leaving a Light-horseman to be taken up for their baggage at Gravesend.
† 4. A variety of fancy pigeons. (Cf. HORSEMAN 3.) Obs.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 244/2. Light Horse-men, a Bastard kind [of Pigeons] between a Cropper and a Carrier.
5. † a. An early name of an Australian sea-fish, according to Morris prob. the Sweep, Scorpis æquipennis. b. A West Indian fish of the genus Ephippus.
1789. W. Tench, Exped. Botany Bay, xv. 129. A species of grouper, to which, from the form of a bone in the head resembling a helmet, we have given the name of light horseman. Ibid. (1793), Acc. Settlement Port Jackson, 176. At the top of the list [of fish], as an article of food, stands a fish, which we named light-horseman.
1854. R. Owen, in Circ. Sci. (c. 1865), II. 51/1. The median crest is developed to an extreme height in some fishes, as, e. g. the dolphin and light-horseman fish (Ephippus).
1881. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 5. Sometimes the crest of the bone is exceedingly lofty, as in the Light Horseman fish (Ephippus) and sometimes absent, as in the sucking fish Remora.
