Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A large hoofed mammal (Equus caballus) having a short coat, a long mane, and a long tail, domesticated since ancient times and used for riding and for drawing or carrying loads.
- noun An adult male horse; a stallion.
- noun Any of various equine mammals, such as the wild Asian species Przewalski's horse or certain extinct forms related ancestrally to the modern horse.
- noun A frame or device, usually with four legs, used for supporting or holding.
- noun Sports A vaulting horse.
- noun Slang Heroin.
- noun Horsepower.
- noun Mounted soldiers; cavalry.
- noun A block of rock interrupting a vein and containing no minerals.
- noun A large block of displaced rock that is caught along a fault.
- intransitive verb To provide with a horse.
- intransitive verb To haul or hoist energetically.
- intransitive verb To be in heat. Used of a mare.
- adjective Of or relating to a horse.
- adjective Mounted on horses.
- adjective Drawn or operated by a horse.
- adjective Larger or cruder than others in the same category.
- idiom (a horse of another/a different) Another matter entirely; something else.
- idiom (beat/flog) To continue to pursue a cause that has no hope of success.
- idiom (beat/flog) To dwell tiresomely on a matter that has already been decided.
- idiom (be/get) To be or become disdainful, superior, or conceited.
- idiom (hold (one's) horses) To restrain oneself.
- idiom (the horse's mouth) A source of information regarded as original or unimpeachable.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To provide with a horse; supply horses for, as a body of cavalry, etc.
- To sit astride; bestride.
- To cover: said of the male.
- To mount or place on or as on the back of a horse; set on horseback; hence, to take on one's own back.
- To mount on another's back preparatory to flogging.
- . Nautical, to “ride” hard; drive or urge at work unfairly or tyrannically: as, to
horse a ship's crew. - To make out or learn by means of a translation or other extrinsic aid: as, to
horse a lesson in Virgil. - To get on horseback; mount or ride on a horse.
- To charge for work before it is executed.
- In calking, to embed firmly in the seams of a ship, as oakum, with a horsing-iron and a mallet: often with up.
- To hang (as skins) over a wooden horse or stand.
- noun The researches of Ewart, Osborn, and others show the probability that the modern horse, like the dog, has been derived from several sources. Prjevalsky's horse is considered to be one of these, while two other forms are recognized—the Celtic pony and the Norse horse.
- noun One of the inclined timbers in a staircase which support the steps.
- noun In mining: A lenticular bod of shale or old channel fillings which cuts out coal-seams.
- noun In chess, same as
knight . - noun In astronomy, the constellation of Pegasus (see
flying horse ); also, the equine part of Sagittarius (represented as a centaur). - noun A Danish silver coin of the value of 1 s. 2 d.
- An obsolete form of
hoarse . - noun A solidungulate perissodactyl mammal of the family Equidœ and genus Equus; E. caballus.
- noun plural In zoology, the horse family, or Equidæ; the species of the genus Equus and related genera.
- noun The male of the horse kind, in distinction from the female or mare; a stallion or gelding.
- noun A body of troops serving on horseback: cavalry: in this sense a collective noun, used also as a plural: as, a regiment of horse.
- noun A frame, block, board, or the like, on which something is mounted or supported, or the use of which is in any way analogous to that of a horse. Compare etymology of easel.
- noun Specifically— A vaulting-block in a gymnasium.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word horse.
Examples
-
So, since the real essence (the atomic constitution) of a horse is unknown to us, our word ˜horse™ cannot get its meaning from that real essence.
John Locke Uzgalis, William 2007
-
Hence white horse, the extension of ˜white horse™, is not the same as (identical to) horse, the extension of ˜horse™.
School of Names Fraser, Chris 2005
-
His most famous line, A white horse is not a horse, deals with the important distinction between horse, white, and white horse.
-
In the sentence, "The man is _beating_ his horse," the noun _horse_ is in the objective case, because it is the object of the action expressed by the active-transitive participle "beating," and it is governed by the participle beating, according to
English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Samuel Kirkham
-
I know you can ride that speck of a pony out there, but you must have a horse now, a real _horse_.
The Girl Scouts at Home, or, Rosanna's Beautiful Day Katherine Keene Galt
-
-- The languages are akin, because each say, where we should say 'the horse kicked the man,' _horse agent man kicking completion, _ or words to that effect, -- dapped out nearly in spherical or angular disconnected monosyllables.
The Crest-Wave of Evolution A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19 Kenneth Morris 1908
-
The occurrence, as recounted by both Orosius and Herodotus, is attributed to a _horse_ (a sacred horse, Herod.), not to a _horseman_, _knight_, or
-
QHNews is delivering the very latest from the cutting, reining & reined cow horse industries. #horse THNX intellibitz HVS Executive Search - Global Executive Recruitment for the Hotel, Gaming, Restaurant and Retail Industries
Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7 2009
-
a porter, with a load of wood upon his back, passed by the other side of the horse, so near, that the gentleman on horse-* back was forced to turn his head towards him to avoid being rubbed by the wood.
-
After hearing a comment of that nature, so filled with anger and hate, I worry that the term horse's ass is way too kind.
-
Pollard thinks the geoglyph is a sun horse—a common creature in ancient Indo-European cosmology that carries the sun across the sky like a chariot.
Tiny Snails Help Solve a Giant Mystery Keridwen Cornelius 2021
chained_bear commented on the word horse
"Horses have always been the most reluctant quadruped passengers (aboard ships), with good reason: they are terrible sailors. Unable to vomit, they exhibited the extent of their suffering by an attack of what handlers called the 'gapes.'" (John Maxstone-Graham, The Only Way to Cross, NY: Macmillan, 1972, p. 332)
See also horse storm. Weirdness.
November 30, 2007
treeseed commented on the word horse
a game played with a basketball
January 28, 2008
skipvia commented on the word horse
Dudley Do-Right. See A Horse is a Horse
February 1, 2008
sonofgroucho commented on the word horse
See also: "horse sense".
February 26, 2008
bilby commented on the word horse
"And when the maid was horsed and he both, the lady took Galahad a fair child and rich; and so they departed from the castle till they came to the seaside; and there they found the ship where Bors and Percivale were in, the which cried on the ship’s board: Sir Galahad, ye be welcome, we have abiden you long."
- Thomas Malory, 'The Holy Grail'.
September 13, 2009
rolig commented on the word horse
"A horse is a horse, of course, of course." – Gertrude Stein.
July 18, 2011
fabien79 commented on the word horse
my horse, my war
February 18, 2019
yarb commented on the word horse
"...our unfortunate hero was publicly horsed, in terrorem of all whom it might concern."
— Smollett, Peregrine Pickle
January 17, 2022