Hoarse
adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Obsolete spelling of horse. alt-of, obsolete
"The 15. 3 mo. 1668 - An act maid in a Towne Meting to provent hoarses and meares from doinge damage, as foloeth. All such hoarses and meares, as comonly kepes about the towne, or in the towne stretes, or comonly doth goe in to the towne neck, […]"
- 1 To utter hoarsely; to croak. uncommon
""[...] Madame! Is—that—your—horse?!" "Ain't no horse!" she hoarses. "Thassa thuruly bred Great Dane!" The thuruly bred Great Dane's balls shine like big , bald onions as he squeezes to deposit 4 1⁄2 pounds of vitamin - enriched apcray near the lamp-post."
- 1 Having a dry, harsh tone to the voice, as a result of a sore throat, age, emotion, etc.
"I am old and my voice is hoarse […]"
- 1 deep and harsh sounding as if from shouting or illness or emotion wordnet
Example
More examples"They were all hoarse from shouting."
Etymology
From Middle English hors, hos, from Old English hās, *hārs, from Proto-Germanic *haisaz, *haisraz, akin to Old Norse háss (West Norse) and heiss (East Norse) (whence Icelandic hás, Norwegian Nynorsk hås, Norwegian Bokmål hes and Swedish hes).
Related phrases
More for "hoarse"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.