chewing ball

English

Alternative forms

• chewing-ball

Noun

chewing ball (plural chewing balls)

1. (equestrianism) A medicinal ball attached to a horse's bit so that the chewing will improve its appetite.
   • 1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., volume II, page 183:

     CHEWING-BALLS, a kind of balls made of aſafœtida, liver of antimony, bay-wood, juniper-wood, and pellitory of Spain; which being dried in the ſun, and wrapped in a linen-cloth, are tied to the bit of the bridle for the horſe to chew: they create an appetite; and it is ſaid, that balls of Venice treacle may be uſed in the ſame manner with good ſucceſs.

References

• “chewing, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.