colting

"Colting" is the present participle of the largely obsolete English verb "to colt," which meant to trick, dupe, or cheat someone — a figurative extension of the noun "colt," suggesting that a gullible victim could be handled as easily as a naive young horse. In this sense the word survives only in older literature and historical dictionaries, and it carries a distinctly archaic flavor today. A second, rarer historical sense applied to horses themselves: a colting horse was one that behaved in an untrained, skittish way, as though still a colt rather than a broken animal. Because the word has fallen out of ordinary use, it is best treated as a curiosity of English vocabulary — useful primarily for readers of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century texts, where swindlers are sometimes described as "colting" their marks. Modern equivalents such as "duping," "conning," or "hoodwinking" have fully replaced it.

The present participle of the now-archaic verb "colt," meaning to trick, dupe, or swindle someone; also historically, of a horse, behaving in an untrained or skittish way like a young colt.

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Etymology of colting

The word derives from "colt," the Middle English noun (attested from around the thirteenth century, likely of Germanic origin) for a young male horse. By the early modern period, English writers had formed a verb from it meaning to fool or swindle, on the notion of taking advantage of someone's youthful naivety — much as a colt is easily handled before training. Related derivatives include the adjective "coltish" and the noun "colthood." The verbal use has since died out.

How colting is actually used

This word is rare and chiefly historical; modern readers will almost never encounter "colting" outside of older texts. The verb "to colt" in the sense of tricking appears mainly in early modern English writing.

Easily confused with colting

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Rhymes with colting