subs. phr. (old).—A pretext or incitement.
1562–3. STILL, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 1 [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), ii. 8]. Shall serve as a SHOING HORNE to draw on two pots of ale.
1584. T. COGAN, The Haven of Health, cxxxii. 134. Yet a gamond of bacon well dressed is a good SHOOING HORN to pull down a cup of wine.
1592. NASHE, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell [Works, ii. 81]. To haue some SHOOING HORNE to pull on your wine, as a rasher of the coles, or a redde herring, to stirre it about with a candles ende to make it taste better, and not to holde your peace whiles the pot is stirring.
c. 1609. J. HEALEY, The Discovery of a New World, 68. Then sir comes me vp a seruice of SHOOING-HORNES (do yee see) of all sorts, salt-cakes, red-herrings, Anchoues, & Gammons of Bacon … and aboundance of such pullers on.
c. 1620. FLETCHER and MASSINGER, The False One, iv. 2.
| They swear they will flay us, and then dry our quarters; | |
| A rasher of a salt lover is such a SHOEING-HORN! |
1621. BURTON, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 246. By little and little, by that SHOEING-HORN of idleness, and voluntary solitariness, melancholy this feral fiend is drawn on.
1712. The Spectator, No. 536, 14 Nov. Most of our fine young ladies … retain in their service, by some small encouragement, as great a number as they can of supernumerary and insignificant fellows, which they use like whifflers, and commonly call ‘SHOEING HORNS.’ These are never designed to know the length of the foot, but only, when a good offer comes, to whet and spin him up to the point.
1815. SCOTT, Guy Mannering, xxiv. This, and some other desultory conversation, served as a ‘SHOEING-HORN’ to draw on another cup of ale.
