stirrup

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stirrup

stirrup foot support for the rider of a horse in mounting and while riding. It is a ring with a horizontal bar to receive the foot and is attached by a strap to the saddle. To avoid the danger of having a foot caught in a stirrup if the rider is thrown, large stirrups are often used; one of the uses of the stirrup cover or stirrup hood is to prevent the foot from entering too far and getting caught; the same purpose is served by the high heels of the cowboy's boots. There is some evidence that stirrups were used in Assyria c.850 BC and in China as early as the Han dynasty, 202 BC-AD 220. Stirrups are not known to have been used in Europe before the raids of the Huns under Attila in the mid-5th cent.; probably they had their origin in central Asia.

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stirrup

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | © The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2009, originally published by Oxford University Press 2009. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

stir·rup / ˈstərəp; ˈstə-rəp; ˈstir-/ • n. 1. each of a pair of devices attached to each side of a horse's saddle, in the form of a loop with a flat base to support the rider's foot. 2. (stir·rups) a pair of metal supports in which a woman's heels may be placed during gynecological examinations and childbirth, to hold her legs in a position that will facilitate medical examination or intervention. 3. (also stir·rup bone) another term for stapes. 4. (stirrups) short for stirrup pants.

stirrup

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