horse
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hô(r)s, IPA(key): /hɔːs/
Audio: “a horse” (RP) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /hɔɹs/
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)s
- Homophone: hoarse (in accents with the horse-hoarse merger)
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English horse, hors, from Old English hors (“horse”), from Proto-West Germanic *hors, *hross, from Proto-Germanic *hrussą (“horse”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (“horse”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”). Cognate with North Frisian hors (“horse”), West Frisian hoars (“horse”), Dutch ros, hors (“horse”), German Ross (“horse”), Danish hors (“horse”), Swedish russ, hors (“horse”), Icelandic hross, hors (“horse”).
NounEdit
horse (plural horses)
- Any of several animals related to Equus ferus caballus.
- A hoofed mammal, of the genus Equus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work.
- A cowboy's greatest friend is his horse.
- 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619, page 16:
- Athelstan Arundel walked home […] , foaming and raging. […] He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
- 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
- The departure was not unduly prolonged. […] Within the door Mrs. Spoker hastily imparted to Mrs. Love a few final sentiments on the subject of Divine Intention in the disposition of buckets; farewells and last commiserations; a deep, guttural instigation to the horse; and the wheels of the waggonette crunched heavily away into obscurity.
- (zoology) Any current or extinct animal of the family Equidae, including the zebra or the ass.
- These bone features, distinctive in the zebra, are actually present in all horses.
- (military, sometimes uncountable) Cavalry soldiers (sometimes capitalized when referring to an official category).
- We should place two units of horse and one of foot on this side of the field.
- All the King's horses and all the King's men, couldn't put Humpty together again.
- (chess, informal) The chess piece representing a knight, depicted as a horse.
- Now just remind me how the horse moves again?
- (slang) A large and sturdy person.
- Every linebacker they have is a real horse.
- (historical) A timber frame shaped like a horse, which soldiers were made to ride for punishment.
- Synonyms: Morgan's mule, Spanish donkey
- A hoofed mammal, of the genus Equus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work.
- Equipment with legs.
- In gymnastics, a piece of equipment with a body on two or four legs, approximately four feet high, sometimes (pommel horse) with two handles on top.
- She's scored very highly with the parallel bars; let's see how she does with the horse.
- A frame with legs, used to support something.
- a clothes horse; a sawhorse
- In gymnastics, a piece of equipment with a body on two or four legs, approximately four feet high, sometimes (pommel horse) with two handles on top.
- (nautical) Type of equipment.
- A rope stretching along a yard, upon which men stand when reefing or furling the sails; footrope.
- A breastband for a leadsman.
- An iron bar for a sheet traveller to slide upon.
- A jackstay.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of W. C. Russell to this entry?)
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)
- (mining) A mass of earthy matter, or rock of the same character as the wall rock, occurring in the course of a vein, as of coal or ore; hence, to take horse (said of a vein) is to divide into branches for a distance.
- (slang) The sedative, antidepressant, and anxiolytic drug morphine, chiefly when used illicitly.
- (US) An informal variant of basketball in which players match shots made by their opponent(s), each miss adding a letter to the word "horse", with 5 misses spelling the whole word and eliminating a player, until only the winner is left. Also HORSE, H-O-R-S-E or H.O.R.S.E. (see H-O-R-S-E on Wikipedia.Wikipedia ).
- (dated, slang, among students) A translation or other illegitimate aid in study or examination.
- (dated, slang, among students) horseplay; tomfoolery
Usage notesEdit
The noun can be used attributively in compounds and phrases to add the sense of large and/or coarse.
SynonymsEdit
- (animal): caple (obsolete or dialectal), cheval (obsolete), horsie, nag, prad, steed; see also Thesaurus:horse
- (gymnastic equipment): pommel horse, vaulting horse
- (chess piece): knight
- (illegitimate study aid): dobbin, pony, trot
HyponymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
- Bay Horse
- behorsed
- carthorse
- change horses in midstream
- cutting horse
- dandy horse
- dark horse
- don't look a gift horse in the mouth
- eat like a horse
- fjord horse
- flog a dead horse, beat a dead horse
- from the horse's mouth
- get back on the horse that bucked one
- get off one's high horse
- hobby horse
- hold one's horses
- horseable
- horse and carriage
- Horse and Jockey
- horseback
- horse brass
- horse-breaker
- horse-chestnut
- horse-drawn
- horse face
- horsefeathers
- horseflesh
- horsefly
- horsehead fiddle
- horse latitudes
- horselaugh
- horsely
- horseman
- horsemanship
- horsemilk
- horse mushroom
- horsen
- horse of a different color
- horse opera
- horse pill
- horseplay
- horsepower
- horse race
- horse racing
- horseradish
- horse sense
- horses for courses
- horseshit
- horseshoe
- horse-stinger
- horse trading
- horsewhip
- horsey, horsie, horsy
- hung like a horse
- Icelandic horse
- I could eat a horse
- no horse in this race
- one-horse race
- one-horse town
- pack horse, packhorse
- plowhorse, ploughhorse
- pommel horse
- rocking horse
- saddle horse
- sawhorse
- sea horse, seahorse
- snowhorse
- stalking horse
- straight from the horse's mouth
- sumpter horse
- swap horses in midstream
- Trojan horse
- Vale of White Horse
- vaulting horse
- warhorse
- wheelhorse
- willing horse
- wooden horse
- workhorse
- work like a horse
DescendantsEdit
TranslationsEdit
|
|
|
|
|
|
See alsoEdit
Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English horsen, from Old English horsian (“to horse, provide with horses”) and ġehorsian (“to horse, set or mount on a horse, supply with horses”), from the noun (see above).
VerbEdit
horse (third-person singular simple present horses, present participle horsing, simple past and past participle horsed)
- (intransitive) To frolic, to act mischievously. (Usually followed by "around".)
- 1989, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (script)
- "Genghis Khan! Abe Lincoln! That’s funny until someone gets hurt."
But Genghis Khan and Lincoln keep horsing around.
- "Genghis Khan! Abe Lincoln! That’s funny until someone gets hurt."
- 1943, Ted W. Lawson and Bob Consodine, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
- I told him that if I passed out before we got to a hospital I wanted him to see to it that no quack horsed around with my leg.
- 1989, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (script)
- (transitive) To provide with a horse; supply horses for.
- c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:
- being better horsed, outrode me
- (obsolete) To get on horseback.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, "Cupid's Arrows":
- He horsed himself well.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, "Cupid's Arrows":
- To sit astride of; to bestride.
- 1608, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Cymbeline, II. i. 203:
- Stalls, bulks, windows / Are smothered up, leads filled, and ridges horsed / With variable complexions, all agreeing / In earnestness to see him.
- 1608, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Cymbeline, II. i. 203:
- (of a male horse) To copulate with (a mare).
- To take or carry on the back.
- c. 1667, Samuel Butler, Characters
- keepers, horsing the deer
- c. 1667, Samuel Butler, Characters
- To place (someone) on the back of another person, or on a wooden horse, etc., to be flogged; (hence) to flog.
- 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.20:
- [N]otwithstanding the intercession of his governor, who begged earnestly that his punishment might be mitigated, our unfortunate hero was publickly horsed, in terrorem of all whom it might concern.
- 1963, Charles Harold Nichols, Many Thousand Gone:
- So they brought him out and horsed him upon the back of Planter George, and whipped him until he fell quivering in the dust.
- 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.20:
- (transitive, dated) To urge at work tyrannically.
- (intransitive, dated) To charge for work before it is finished.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
Etymology 3Edit
Unknown
NounEdit
horse (uncountable)
- (uncountable, slang) Heroin (drug).
- Alright, mate, got any horse?
SynonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit
Further readingEdit
AnagramsEdit
Middle EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Old English hors, from Proto-West Germanic *hross, from Proto-Germanic *hrussą (“horse”), from Proto-Indo-European *kers- (“run”).
NounEdit
horse
- Alternative form of hors
Etymology 2Edit
From Old English *hārs, variant of hās.
AdjectiveEdit
horse
- Alternative form of hos
Etymology 3Edit
VerbEdit
horse
- Alternative form of horsen (“to provide with a horse”)
ScotsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old English hors
NounEdit
horse (plural horse)