Crossword clues for fetlock
fetlock
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fetlock \Fet"lock\, n. [OE. fetlak, fitlock, cf. Icel. fet pace, step, fit webbed foot of water birds, akin to E. foot. [root] 77. See Foot.] The cushionlike projection, bearing a tuft of long hair, on the back side of the leg above the hoof of the horse and similar animals. Also, the joint of the limb at this point (between the great pastern bone and the metacarpus), or the tuft of hair.
Their wounded steeds
Fret fetlock deep in gore.
--Shak.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"tuft of hair behind the pastern-joint of a horse," early 14c., fetlak, from a Germanic source (cognates: Dutch vetlock, Middle High German fizlach, German Fiszloch), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *fetel- (source of German fessel "pastern"), from PIE *ped-el-, from root *ped- (1) "foot" (see foot (n.)). The Middle English diminutive suffix -ok (from Old English -oc) was misread and the word taken in folk etymology as a compound of feet and lock (of hair).
Wiktionary
n. A joint of the horse's leg below the knee or hock and above the hoof, also called the "ankle".
WordNet
n. the joint between the cannon bone and the pastern [syn: fetlock joint]
projection behind and above a horse's hoof
Wikipedia
Fetlock is the common name for the metacarpophalangeal and metatarsophalangeal joints (MCPJ and MTPJ) of horses, large animals, and sometimes dogs. It is formed by the junction of the third metacarpal (forelimb) or metatarsal (hindlimb) bones (common name: the cannon bones) proximad and the proximal phalanx distad (common name: the pastern bone). Paired proximal sesamoid bones articulate with the palmar or plantar distal surface of the third metacarpal or metatarsal bones and are rigidly fixed to the proximo-palmar/-plantar edge of the proximal phalanx.
The fetlock is a hinge joint (ginglymus), allowing flexion and extension, but minimal rotation, adduction, or abduction.
While sometimes the fetlock is colloquially referred to as an "ankle", even by horse experts, that terminology is not correct. The fetlock is a metacarpophalangeal joint which corresponds to the human upper knuckle, such as that on the ball of the foot.
Usage examples of "fetlock".
Give me the Saltings of Essex with the east winds blowing over them, and the primroses abloom upon the bank, and the lanes fetlock deep in mud, and for your share you may take all the scented gardens of Sinan and the cups and jewels of his ladies, with the fightings and adventures of the golden East thrown in.
Fortunately the Gwadlipichee subsides as rapidly as it rises, and just before dawn the syce came splashing back, with the ponies only fetlock deep in water.
And now beneath the rising sun, Whose shining chariot overpeers The irradiate ridge, while fetlock deep In the rich soil his coursers plunge - How grand in robes of light it looks!
I felt my way up over the coronet to the fetlock and after some palpation I located a spot near the distal end of the metacarpus which was painful on pressure.
Beneath smooth, unfringed fetlocks, each hoof was a single, solid toe.
Hers were a beardless chin, untasseled ears, and fetlocks unfringed with feathery down.
It was sloping upwards, that ploughland, and the horses were over their fetlocks in the red, soft soil.
I should apply a hot antiphlogistine poultice just above the fetlock and alternate with a cold hose on it twice a day.
He beat a thrust aside, ducked into a shield-boss, and with the strength of desperation grappled a wrist as thick as a horse's fetlock, twisted, and hurled Wigga the champion over his thigh in a village-green cross-buttock throw.
Its fetlocks were tapered yet muscular, more jumper than draught horse.
The unicorn tossed his head, then came down to the sandbar, dipped a front leg up to the fetlock joint, and cautiously drank.
She did a few stretching exercises, working out the kinks in her rump, stifles, gaskins, hocks, and fetlocks.
She was a beautiful creature with the Roman nose of a Clydesdale and the smooth, untufted fetlocks of a Percheron.