Citations:horseshoe

Noun: the U-shaped metallic shoe of a horse

 * 1887, David A. Wells, "The Economic Disturbances since 1873", III, Popular Science 31 (no. 37): 595
 * And what has been thus affirmed of other leading commodities; the blacksmith, for example, no longer making, but buying his horseshoes, nails, nuts, and bolts;

Noun: a U-shaped piece of metal used to play the game horseshoes

 * 1997, Francis Edward Abernethy (editor), Texas toys and games, page 142
 * Each player has a turn at tossing his horseshoes, one at a time, at the stob opposite him. His opponent then throws his horseshoes.

Noun: the U shape of a horseshoe

 * 2005, Stuart H. James & Jon J. Nordby (editors), Forensic science: an introduction to scientific and investigative techniques, page 88
 * If there are no missing teeth and tooth alignment is good, two opposing well-defined horseshoes are seen. If, however, your denitition is mal-aligned or is missing anterior teeth, this pattern too should be reflected in the bite mark.

Noun (bodybuilding): a well-developed set of triceps brachii muscles

 * 2004, Ellington Darden, The New High-Intensity Training, page 58
 * The lateral head of your triceps forms the outside of the horseshoe, the long head forms the inside, the medial head lies beneath the long head, and the tendon occupies the flat space in the middle.

Noun (political sense)

 * 1977, Ray S. Cline, World Power Assessment 1977: A Calculus of Strategic Drift
 * A more useful way of describing modern political tendencies is to align societies along what I call the political horseshoe spectrum with the true opposites being pluralistic diversity and totalitarian conformity.
 * 2003, Kevin Harrison, Tony Boyd, Understanding Political Ideas and Movements, Manchester University Press (ISBN 9780719061516), page 142:
 * In recent years the political spectrum has been largely replaced as a conceptual tool by a &#39;political horseshoe&#39;, in which the far left and far right bend round to be so close as to have much in common in terms of authoritarianism and ...
 * 2019, Ray S. Cline, World Power Trends And U.S. Foreign Policy For The 1980s, Routledge (ISBN 9781000010428)
 * Most modern nations can be classified somewhere along the spread of a novel but rather simple political horseshoe spectrum (Graphic I) reflecting major present-day tendencies, and when they are so arranged two clusters of associated ...