English

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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wild horses

  1. plural of wild horse
  2. (idiomatic) A force not subject to human control and normally stronger than a man.
    Wild horses wouldn't have kept me from going to the party.
    • 1869, Mackenzie Daniel, James Wyvern's Sin, page 298:
      there's no denying that when you take a thing in your head wild horses couldn't turn you from it

Usage notes

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  • The idiomatic usage is almost always limited to expressions of the form "wild horses couldn't" or "wild horses wouldn't".