horse
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (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 1[edit]
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”).
Noun[edit]
horse (plural horses)
- A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, 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 […], 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.
- Any member of the species Equus ferus, including the Przewalski's horse and the extinct Equus ferus ferus.
- (zoology) Any current or extinct animal of the family Equidae, including zebras and asses.
- 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
- 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.
- 1887, William Clark Russell, A Book for the Hammock
- The old “horse” has made way for the “foot-rope", though we still retain the term “Flemish horse" for the short foot-rope at the top-sail yard-arms
- 1887, William Clark Russell, A Book for the Hammock
- (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 ).
- (uncountable) The flesh of a horse as an item of cuisine.
- 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 46:
- She said: "I'm starved. I could eat a horse." I told her she was lying, because I had once eaten horse.
- (prison slang) A prison guard who smuggles contraband in or out for prisoners.
- 1980, Lee Harrington Bowker, Prison Victimization (page 117)
- This "horse" (a slang term for prison officers who smuggle contraband into the institution) was probably able "to stay in business" for such a long time because he only "packed" for powerful, trustworthy prisoners […]
- 1980, Lee Harrington Bowker, Prison Victimization (page 117)
- (dated, slang, among students) A translation or other illegitimate aid in study or examination.
- (dated, slang, among students) Horseplay; tomfoolery.
Usage notes[edit]
The noun can be used attributively in compounds and phrases to add the sense of large and/or coarse.
Synonyms[edit]
- (animal): caple (obsolete or dialectal), cheval (obsolete), horsie, nag, prad, steed; see also Thesaurus:horse
- (gymnastic equipment): pommel horse, vaulting horse
- (chess piece): knight
- (food): horseflesh, horsemeat
- (illegitimate study aid): dobbin, pony, trot
Hyponyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
- Bay Horse
- behorsed
- carthorse
- change horses in midstream
- cutting horse
- dandy horse
- dark horse
- don't look a gift horse in the mouth
- draft horse
- 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
- hebra
- hobby horse
- hold one's horses
- horseable
- horse and carriage
- Horse and Jockey
- horseback
- horse brass
- horse-breaker
- horse bus
- horsecar, horse car
- horse-chestnut
- horse-drawn
- horse face
- horsefeathers
- horseflesh
- horsefly
- horsehead fiddle
- horse latitudes
- horselaugh
- horseless carriage
- horsely
- horseman
- horsemanship
- horsemeat
- 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
- horsetail
- horse trading
- horsewhip
- horsey, horsie, horsy
- hung like a horse
- Icelandic horse
- I could eat a horse
- iron horse
- Kicking Horse Pass
- mechanical horse
- no horse in this race
- one-horse race
- one-horse town
- pack horse, packhorse
- plowhorse, ploughhorse
- pommel horse
- racehorse
- rocking horse
- saddle horse
- sawhorse
- sea horse, seahorse
- snowhorse
- stalking horse
- steel 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
- zorse
Descendants[edit]
Translations[edit]
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See also[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]
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).
Verb[edit]
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 […] (First Folio), London: […] 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.
- 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i], line 203:
- Stalls, bulks, windows / Are smothered up, leads filled, and ridges horsed / With variable complexions, all agreeing / In earnestness to see him.
- (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 terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
Etymology 3[edit]
Unknown
Noun[edit]
horse (uncountable)
- (uncountable, slang) Heroin (drug).
- Alright, mate, got any horse?
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
Further reading[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Middle English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
Noun[edit]
horse
- Alternative form of hors
Etymology 2[edit]
Adjective[edit]
horse
- Alternative form of hos
Etymology 3[edit]
Verb[edit]
horse
- Alternative form of horsen (“to provide with a horse”)
Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]
Noun[edit]
horse f (definite singular horsa, indefinite plural horser, definite plural horsene)
- a mare
- (derogatory) frivolous woman
Verb[edit]
horse (present tense horsar, past tense horsa, past participle horsa, passive infinitive horsast, present participle horsande, imperative horse/hors)
- (intransitive, of a stallion) to run around amongst the mares
- (intransitive, of a man) to run around, chiefly drunkenly
Scots[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old English hors.
Noun[edit]
horse (plural horse)
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)s
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)s/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱers-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- en:Zoology
- en:Military
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Chess
- English informal terms
- English slang
- English terms with historical senses
- en:Nautical
- en:Mining
- American English
- English prison slang
- English dated terms
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with unknown etymologies
- en:Horse racing
- en:People
- en:Heroin
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English adjectives
- Middle English verbs
- Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas
- Norwegian Nynorsk nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk feminine nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk derogatory terms
- Norwegian Nynorsk verbs
- Norwegian Nynorsk weak verbs
- Norwegian Nynorsk intransitive verbs
- nn:Horses
- Scots terms inherited from Old English
- Scots terms derived from Old English
- Scots lemmas
- Scots nouns