halter

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔltɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔːltə/
• Rhymes: -ɔːltə(ɹ)

From Middle English halter, helter, helfter, from Old English hælfter, hælftre (“halter”), from Proto-Germanic *halftrō, *halftrijaz (“harness”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to cut”), equivalent to half- +‎ -ter. Cognate with Scots helter (“halter”), Dutch halfter, halster (“halter”), Low German halfter, helchter, halter (“halter”), German Halfter (“halter, holster”).

halter (plural halters)

1. A bitless headpiece of rope or straps, placed on the head of animals such as cattle or horses to lead or tie them.
2. A rope with a noose, for hanging criminals; the gallows rope.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     And Crates said, that love was cured with hunger, if not by time; and in him that liked not these two meanes, by the halter [transl. hart].

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:

     “ […] No rogue e’er felt the halter draw, with a good opinion of the law, and perhaps my own detestation of the law arises from my having frequently broken it. […].”

3. A halter top.

• headstall
• headpiece
• headcollar (British)

halter (third-person singular simple present halters, present participle haltering, simple past and past participle haltered)

1. (transitive) To place a halter on.

   What do you mean, you didn't halter the horses when we stopped for the night?

halt +‎ -er

halter (plural halters)

1. One who halts or limps; a cripple.

• Hartel, Hartle, Thrale, lather, rathel, thaler

• helter, heltre, heltere, helfter, heltyr, haltre, haltur

Inherited from Old English hælftre, hælfter, from Proto-Germanic *halftrō, *halftrijaz.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhaltər/, /ˈhɛltər/, /ˈhaltrə/

halter (plural haltres)

1. A halter; horse headgear lacking a bit.
2. (rare) A rope tied in a noose for hanging.
3. (rare) The binding contract of marriage.

• English: halter
• Scots: helter, hilter

• “halter (n.(1))” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-02-06.

halter

1. present tense of halte

halter m (plural halteres)

1. Alternative form of haltere

halter

1. indefinite plural of halt