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withers

wit·hers

UK/ˈwɪð.əz/ US/ˈwɪð.ɚz/ uncommon

noun

1.

sensibility to trouble (as in the phrase `wring one''s withers'')

  • “the lawsuit was wringing his withers”
  • “our withers are unwrung” -Shakespeare
2.

the highest part of the back at the base of the neck of various animals especially draft animals

Origin

From dialectal English wither (“against”) (compare wither-) + -s; see with. So-named because it is the part of the horse that pushes against a load. Compare German Widerrist (“withers”), from wider (“against”) + Rist (“wrist”).

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.