English

Adverb

a-cock-horse

1. (archaic) Astride; mounted on something as though on horseback.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.12:

     We have yet a thousand medailes and monuments, namely, of that honest woman Faustina, wherein that Eagle is represented, carrying a cock-horse a dead goat up towards heaven those Deified soules.

   • 1847, E Howard, The Old Commodore, Ch.XX:

     Then placing the stretcher between his legs in the manner that little boys ride a-cock-horse upon their grand-papa's canes, he began most dolefully to dole out the following ditty.