loco

‖adv. [ It. ] (Mus.) A direction in written or printed music to return to the proper pitch after having played an octave higher. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Sp. loco insane. ] 1. (Bot.) A plant (Astragalus Hornii) growing in the Southwestern United States, which is said to poison horses and cattle, first making them insane. The name is also given vaguely to several other species of the same genus. Called also loco weed. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) Any one of various leguminous plants or weeds besides Astragalus, whose herbage is poisonous to cattle, as Spiesia Lambertii, syn. Oxytropis Lambertii. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Locoed p. pr. & vb. n. Locoing. ] To poison with loco; to affect with the loco disease; hence (Colloq.), to render insane or mad. “The locoed novelist.” W. D. Howells. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. [ Sp. loco insane. ] Insane; crazy. [ Originally Southwestern U. S., now slang ] [ PJC ]

. (Veter.) A chronic nervous affection of cattle, horses, and sheep, caused by eating the loco weed and characterized by a slow, measured gait, high step, glassy eyes with defective vision, delirium, and gradual emaciation. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Of uncertain etymol.; perh. for L. loco foci instead of fire; or, according to Bartlett, it was called so from a self-lighting cigar, with a match composition at the end, invented in 1834 by John Marck of New York, and called by him locofoco cigar, in imitation of the word locomotive, which by the uneducated was supposed to mean, self-moving. ] 1. A friction match. [ U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A nickname formerly given to a member of the Democratic party. [ U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The name was first applied, in 1834, to a portion of the Democratic party, because, at a meeting in Tammany Hall, New York, in which there was great diversity of sentiment, the chairman left his seat, and the lights were extinguished, for the purpose of dissolving the meeting; when those who were opposed to an adjournment produced locofoco matches, rekindled the lights, continued the meeting, and accomplished their object. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a disease of livestock caused by locoweed poisoning; characterized by weakness and lack of coordination and trembling and partial paralysis.
Syn. -- loco disease. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. i. [ by back-formation from locomotion. ] To change location; move, travel, or proceed.
Syn. -- travel, go, move. [ WordNet 1.5 ]