| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| horse |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  hôrs |
| NOUN: | 1a. A large hoofed mammal (Equus caballus) having a short-haired coat, a long mane, and a long tail, domesticated since ancient times and used for riding and for drawing or carrying loads. b. An adult male horse; a stallion. c. Any of various equine mammals, such as the wild Asian species E. przewalskii or certain extinct forms related ancestrally to the modern horse. 2. A frame or device, usually with four legs, used for supporting or holding. 3. Sports A vaulting horse. 4. Slang Heroin. 5. Horsepower. Often used in the plural. 6. Mounted soldiers; cavalry: a squadron of horse. 7. Geology a. A block of rock interrupting a vein and containing no minerals. b. A large block of displaced rock that is caught along a fault. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: horsed, hors·ing, hors·es
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To provide with a horse. 2. To haul or hoist energetically: “Things had changed little since the days of the pyramids, with building materials being horsed into place by muscle power” (Henry Allen, Smithsonian September 1985). | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To be in heat. Used of a mare. | | ADJECTIVE: | 1. Of or relating to a horse: a horse blanket. 2. Mounted on horses: horse guards. 3. Drawn or operated by a horse. 4. Larger or cruder than others that are similar: horse pills. | | PHRASAL VERB: | horse around Informal To indulge in horseplay or frivolous activity: Stop horsing around and get to work. | | IDIOMS: | a horse of another (or a different) color Another matter entirely; something else. beat (or flog) a dead horse 1. To continue to pursue a cause that has no hope of success. 2. To dwell tiresomely on a matter that has already been decided. be (or get) on (one's) high horse To be or become disdainful, superior, or conceited. hold (one's) horses To restrain oneself. the horse's mouth A source of information regarded as original or unimpeachable. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old English hors.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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