2. (racing and colloquial).—To influence; to bribe; to nobble (of horses), and to corrupt (of persons); applied to horse, owner, trainer, jockey, and vet. alike.
1870. Spectator, 23 April. That, of course, makes it profitable for owners to withdraw horses they have secretly betted against, and for scoundrels to get at horses.
1871. Saturday Review, 9 Sept. It is quite clear that some of the foreign working men have been got at.
1883. Graphic, 17 March, p. 262, c. 2. The House of Commons … can also be trusted to decide in local questions without any suspicion of being got at, as is sometimes the case elsewhere.
1883. Badminton Library, Steeplechasing, p. 404. Suspicions that the mare had been got at, that is to say, drugged, were afterwards noised abroad.
1888. Daily Telegraph, 17 Nov. It was strongly suspected that he had been got at.
1890. Globe, 11 Aug., p. 1, c. 1. Fancy the professional agitator trying to get at such men as these—men who gloried in being soldiers and nothing else!
1892. Pall Mall Gazette, May 10, p. 3, c. 3. The scoundrels (verily of the lowest form) who have tried to get at Orme.
1892. National Observer, vii. 630. If the horse were got at, then a bookie who stood heavily to lose is probably assumed. [[135]]
To get about, verb. phr. (venery).—To do the act of intromission. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.