subs. (old).—A cuckold. As verb = to cuckold, whence ACTEON’S BADGE = the stigma of cuckoldom (B. E., GROSE, BEE).
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 1. 122. Pist. Like Sir ACTÆON he … O, odious is the name! Ford. What name, sir? Pist. The horn.
1615. NICHOLS, A Discourse of Marriage and Wiving [Harleian Miscellany, III., 274]. There is, in marriage, an inevitable destiny … which is either to be ACTÆONED, or not to be.
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, III. III. iv. 1. Husband and Cuckold in that age, it seems, were reciprocal terms; the Emperors themselves did wear ACTÆON’S BADGE.
1633. MARMION, A Fine Companion, v. 2. I turn’d him into an ACTÆON at home, set a fair pair of horns on his head, and made him a tame beast.
d. 1658. CLEVELAND, Vituperium Uxoris, x. And thou’lt ACTÆON’D be.
1694. MOTTEUX, Rabelais, V. xxxvii. I already see him, like another ACTÆON, horned, horny, hornified.
1699. FARQUHAR, The Constant Couple, i. 1. Smug. We’ll maintain you no longer. Stand. Then your wives shall, old ACTÆON.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. ACTÆON … There sits my ACTEON, ignorant and hornified.
