# horse

Pronunciation: US say "HORS" /hoɹs/; UK say "HAWS" /hɔːs/

## Noun

1. A large hoofed mammal with a mane and long tail, kept for riding, racing and pulling loads; also its wild forms, such as Przewalski's horse.
   - Simple: A large animal with hooves, a mane and a long tail that people ride or use to pull things.
   - _She saddled the horse before the long mountain ride._
   - _Wild horses roamed the open plains in large herds._
2. One unit of horsepower, mostly used in the plural when giving the power of an engine. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A unit of horsepower, used to say how strong an engine is, mostly in the plural.
   - _The new model gets 450 horses out of a smaller, lighter engine._
   - _He dropped a 600-horse V8 into his old pickup._
3. Cavalry soldiers considered collectively as a mounted body of troops.
   - Simple: Soldiers who fight while riding on horseback, thought of as one group.
   - _The king sent his horse to scatter the rebels._
   - _Light horse harried the retreating column for miles._
4. Meat from a horse, prepared and eaten as food.
   - Simple: The meat of a horse, eaten as food.
   - _The butcher sold horse at a lower price than beef._
   - _Many diners cannot tell horse from lean beef._
6. A piece of gymnastics equipment with a padded body on two or four legs, about four feet high, sometimes fitted with two handles on top.
   - Simple: In gymnastics, a padded block on legs that athletes jump over or swing on.
   - _He swung onto the horse and began his pommel routine._
   - _The horse at our gym is so old that its leather is cracking._
7. A supporting frame mounted on legs, used to hold up a workpiece or other object.
   - Simple: A wooden or metal stand with legs used to hold something up.
   - _The carpenter rested the heavy beam on a single horse._
   - _The painters laid an old door across two horses to use as a table._
8. An informal name for the chess knight, the playing piece shaped like a horse's head. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: In chess, a casual name for the knight, the piece shaped like a horse's head.
   - _Beginners often forget that the horse can jump over other pieces._
   - _In the third game of the chess tournament, he sacrificed a horse to open up the center of the board._
9. A large, powerfully built, and physically sturdy person. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A big, strong person who can do hard physical work.
   - _The veteran lineman is a horse, pushing defenders back all game._
   - _At the warehouse, she's the horse everyone relies on for heavy lifting._
10. An informal basketball game in which players take turns matching each other's shots, with every missed shot adding a letter to the word 'horse' and five misses eliminating a player. *(US)*
   - Simple: A basketball game where players copy each other's shots, and each miss adds a letter to the word horse.
   - _The kids played horse until the streetlights came on._
   - _Nobody could match his jump shots, so he won horse easily._
12. A slang word for heroin, the strongly addictive opioid drug, especially as sold on the street. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A slang name for heroin, a strong, addictive drug, especially when it is sold illegally.
   - _His horse habit cost him his job and most of his friends._
   - _Police seized a kilo of horse during the raid._
18. A xiangqi (Chinese chess) piece that moves one point orthogonally and then one point diagonally outward.
   - Simple: A piece in Chinese chess that moves one step straight and then one step diagonally.
   - _In xiangqi, a piece standing right next to your horse can block its path._
   - _In their game of Chinese chess, she sent her horse across the river toward his general._
19. A poker player whose entry fee is funded by a backer, who in return claims a percentage of any winnings. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A poker player whose buy-in was paid by someone else, who then takes a share of the winnings.
   - _He spent a year as a horse for a wealthy investor on the tournament circuit._
   - _A good horse at the poker table returns far more than the buy-ins the backer covers._
20. A corrupt prison officer who smuggles contraband in or out on behalf of inmates. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A prison guard who secretly brings banned items in or out for prisoners.
   - _The investigation finally exposed the horse who had supplied the wing for years._
   - _Investigators found that a night-shift guard had been working as a horse, smuggling phones to inmates for cash._
21. A timber frame built in the shape of a horse, which soldiers were forced to straddle as a military punishment.
   - Simple: A wooden frame shaped like a horse that soldiers had to sit on as a punishment.
   - _Two deserters were sentenced to ride the horse in front of the assembled company._
   - _The wooden horse stood in the barracks yard as a grim warning to would-be mutineers._
27. A mass of rock or earthy matter, like the surrounding wall rock, that interrupts a vein of coal or ore.
   - Simple: In mining, a lump of rock or earth that breaks up a vein of coal or ore.
   - _A thick horse forced the crew to drive a new heading around it._
   - _The vein narrowed and then split around a horse of slate._

## Verb

5. To fool around in a rough, playful way; usually in the phrase horse around.
   - Simple: To play in a rough, silly way.
   - _Teenagers horse around in the hallway between classes._
   - _Quit horsing around in the back seat, or we're turning this car around._
11. To shift, drag, or haul something by sheer force, as a horse would.
   - Simple: To pull or move something heavy using a lot of force.
   - _The dockworkers horse the heavy cargo into place all day._
   - _She horsed the stubborn cart through the muddy gate._
13. To sit astride something, with a leg on either side; to straddle.
   - Simple: To sit on something with one leg on each side.
14. To supply someone with a horse or horses.
   - Simple: To give someone a horse to ride or use.
   - _The outfitter horsed our whole group for the three-day trail ride._
   - _The sheriff asked local farmers to horse his posse for the search._
15. Of a stallion, to mate with a mare.
   - Simple: To mate with a female horse.
16. To cram food into oneself quickly, carelessly, or in great quantity. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To stuff food into your mouth quickly, carelessly, or in large amounts.
17. To take or carry a person or load upon one's back.
   - Simple: To carry someone or something on your back.
22. To flog or whip someone as a punishment, often after placing them on another person's back or on a wooden horse.
   - Simple: To beat someone with a whip as a punishment.

## Verb

23. To drive someone to work harder through harsh, domineering pressure and relentless demands. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To force someone to work very hard by bullying and pushing them without rest.
26. To cheat at schoolwork using a translation or other forbidden aid. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To cheat on schoolwork by using a secret translation or other banned help.

## Noun

24. A translation or other forbidden aid that a student uses to cheat in study or examinations. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A secret translation or other cheat that a student uses to get through lessons or tests.
25. Rowdy fun or foolish behavior, especially the kind students get up to. *(dated)*
   - Simple: Rough, silly play or fooling around, especially among young people.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Any living or extinct animal of the family Equidae, a group that includes zebras and asses.
- (noun) On a square-rigged ship, the rope hanging under a yard that sailors balance on while gathering in or shortening sail.
- (noun) A band passed around the chest of the sailor taking soundings and fastened to the rigging, so he can lean out safely to throw the weighted line.
- (noun) A metal rod fixed across a deck, along which the fitting that holds a sail's control rope can slide.
- (noun) A rope, rod or bar fixed along a yard, to which the top edge of a sail is fastened.
- (verb) To climb up onto a horse.
- (verb) Among printers and similar workers, to claim payment for a job that has not yet been completed.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–4, 6–10, 18–21, 24–25, 27** — From Old English hors, from Proto-Germanic *hrussą, probably from an Indo-European word for a vehicle built on a root meaning "to run". That makes it a likely doublet of car; German Ross and Icelandic hross are cousins.
**Meanings 5, 11, 13–17, 22–23, 26** — Built on the noun horse, the verb existed in Old English as horsian and ġehorsian. Their senses were to horse, to set or mount someone on a horse, and to supply horses, and they became Middle English horsen.
**Meaning 12** — Nobody knows for sure. The likeliest story is that criminals first used it as cant, because heroin begins with the same letter.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/horse (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).