ride a horse foaled by an acorn

English

Alternative forms

• mount a horse foaled by an acorn, ride a horse foaled of an acorn

Etymology

An allusion to the oak used to construct the gallows.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

ride a horse foaled by an acorn (third-person singular simple present rides a horse foaled by an acorn, present participle riding a horse foaled by an acorn, simple past rode a horse foaled by an acorn or (obsolete) rid a horse foaled by an acorn, past participle ridden a horse foaled by an acorn)

1. (obsolete, slang) To be hanged on the gallows.
   • 1670, John Ray, “Proverbial Phraſes”, in A Compleat Collection of Engliſh Proverbs‎^[1], 4th edition, published 1768, page 197:

     You'll ride on a horſe that was foal'd of an acron.
     That is; the gallows.

   • 1828, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter 82, in Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman, page 385:

     "What ho, my kiddy!" cried Job, "don't be glimflashy; why you'd cry beef on a blater; the cove is a bob cull, and a pal of my own; and moreover, is as pretty a Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an acorn."

   • 2003, Michael Crummey, River Thieves, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 272:

     Fourteen, sir. No age to be riding a horse foaled by an acorn, I can tell you.

   • 2008, Barbara Ker Wilson, The Lost Years of Jane Austen, Ulysses Press, →ISBN, page 21:

     A sheep stealer, the mother told the child... and now the man twisted there, riding a horse foaled by an acorn, as the saying went, while the fat Welsh sheep in safety grazed the green pasture all around.

References

• [Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811) “Ride a horse foaled by an acorn”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. […], London: […] C. Chappell, […], →OCLC.