Horse

Pronunciation

• enPR: hô(r)s, IPA: /hɔː(ɹ)s/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)s
• Homophones: hoarse

From Middle English horse, hors, from Old English hors ("horse"), from Proto-Germanic *hrussą ("horse"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sos ("horse"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- ("to run").

Full definition of horse

Noun

1. Of, like, or closely associated with the animal.
1. A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work.
   A cowboy's greatest friend is his horse.
• 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate Chapter Prologue, 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, A Cuckoo in the Nest Chapter 5, 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.
2. (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.
3. (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.
4. (chess, informal) The chess piece representing a knight, depicted as a man in a suit of armor and often on a horse, hence the nickname.
   Now just remind me how the horse moves again?
5. (slang) A large person.
   Every linebacker they have is a real horse.
6. (historical) A timber frame shaped like a horse, which soldiers were made to ride for punishment.
7. Equipment with legs.
1. In gymnastics, a piece of equipment with a body on two or four legs, approximately four feet high with two handles on top.
   She's scored very highly with the parallel bars; let's see how she does with the horse.
2. A frame with legs, used to support something.
   a clothes horse;   a sawhorse
8. (nautical) Equipment.
1. A rope stretching along a yard, upon which men stand when reefing or furling the sails; footrope.
2. A breastband for a leadsman.
3. An iron bar for a sheet traveller to slide upon.
4. A jackstay.
9. (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.
10. (slang) The sedative, antidepressant, and anxiolytic drug morphine, chiefly when used illicitly.
• 1962, Cape Fear (1962 film), 00:15:20Check that shirt. I got a couple of jolts of horse stashed under the collar
11. (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 ).

Usage notes

The noun can be used attributively in compounds and phrases to add the sense of large and
or coarse

Synonyms

• (animal) horsie, nag, steed
• (gymnastic equipment) pommel horse, vaulting horse
• (chesspiece) knight

Hyponyms

• (animal) colt, foal, filly, gelding, palomino, pony, stallion

Derived terms

Verb

1. (intransitive) To frolic, to act mischievously. (Usually followed by "around".)
• unknown date 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.
• unknown date Ted Lawson, 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.
2. (transitive) To provide with a horse.
• Shakespearebeing better horsed, outrode me
3. (obsolete) To get on horseback.
• 1888, Rudyard Kipling, :He horsed himself well.
4. To sit astride of; to bestride.
• 1608, William Shakespeare, , II. i. 203:Stalls, bulks, windows
  Are smothered up, leads filled, and ridges horsed
  With variable complexions, all agreeing
  In earnestness to see him.
5. (of a male horse) To copulate with (a mare).
6. To take or carry on the back.
• S. Butlerthe keeper, horsing a deer
7. To place on the back of another person, or on a wooden horse, etc., to be flogged; to subject to such punishment.
• 1963, Charles Harold Nichols, Many Thousand GoneSo they brought him out and horsed him upon the back of Planter George, and whipped him until he fell quivering in the dust.

Derived terms

• horse around
• unhorse

Unknown

Noun

1. (uncountable, slang, dated) Heroin.Alright, mate, got any horse?

Synonyms

• (heroin) H, smack

Anagrams

• hoers, hoser, shero, shoer, shore, Shore