English edit

Adverb edit

a-cock-horse

  1. (archaic) Astride; mounted on something as though on horseback.
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes [], book II, London: [] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount [], →OCLC:
      We have yet a thousand medailes and monuments, namely, of that honest woman Faustina, wherein that Eagle is represented, carrying a cock-horse a dead goat up towards heaven those Deified soules.
    • 1847, E Howard, chapter XX, in The Old Commodore:
      Then placing the stretcher between his legs in the manner that little boys ride a-cock-horse upon their grand-papa's canes, he began most dolefully to dole out the following ditty.