Horse

Horse, hors, n. a well-known quadruped: (collectively) cavalry: that by which something is supported, as 'clothes-horse,' &c.: a wooden frame on which soldiers were formerly made to ride as a punishment—also Timber-mare: a boy's crib, a translation.—v.t. to mount on a horse: to provide with a horse: to sit astride: to carry on the back: to urge at work tyrannically: to construe by means of a crib.—v.i. to get on horseback: to charge for work before it is done.—ns. Horse′-artill′ery, field artillery with comparatively light guns and the gunners mounted; Horse′back, the back of a horse; Horse′-bean, a large bean given to horses; Horse′-block, a block or stage by which to mount or dismount from a horse; Horse′-boat, a boat for carrying horses, or one towed by a horse; Horse′-box, a railway car for transporting horses in, or a stall on shipboard; Horse′-boy, a stable-boy; Horse′-break′er, Horse′-tam′er, one whose business is to break or tame horses, or to teach them to draw or carry (Pretty horse-breaker, a woman with little virtue to lose); Horse′-car, a car drawn by horses; Horse′-chest′nut, a large variety of chestnut, prob. so called from its coarseness contrasted with the edible chestnut: the tree that produces it (see Chestnut); Horse′-cloth, a cloth for covering a horse; Horse′-coup′er (Scot.), a horse-dealer; Horse′-deal′er, one who deals in horses; Horse′-doc′tor, a veterinary surgeon; Horse′-drench, a dose of physic for a horse.—adj. Horse′-faced, having a long face.—ns. Horse′-flesh, the flesh of a horse: horses collectively: a Bahama mahogany.—adj. of reddish-bronze colour.—ns. Horse′-fly, a large fly that stings horses; Horse′-foot, the colt's foot; Horse′-god′mother, a fat clumsy woman.—n.pl. Horse′-guards, horse-soldiers employed as guards: the 3d heavy cavalry regiment of the British army, forming part of the household troops: the War Office, or public office in Whitehall, London, appropriated to the departments of the commander-in-chief of the British army.—ns. Horse′-hair, the hair of horses: haircloth; Horse′-hoe, a hoe drawn by horses; Horse′-knack′er, one who buys worn-out horses for slaughtering; Horse′-lat′itudes, a part of the North Atlantic Ocean noted for long calms, so called from the frequent necessity of throwing part of a cargo of horses overboard from want of water when becalmed; Horse′-laugh, a harsh, boisterous laugh; Horse′-leech, a large species of leech, so named from its fastening on horses when wading in the water: a bloodsucker (Prov. xxx. 15); Horse′-litt′er, a litter or bed borne between two horses; Horse′-mack′erel, one of various fishes—the scad (q.v.), &c.; Horse′man, a rider on horseback: a mounted soldier; Horse′manship, the art of riding, and of training and managing horses; Horse′-ma′rine, a person quite out of his element: an imaginary being for whom wild flights of imagination had best be reserved ('Tell it to the horse-marines'); Horse-mill, a mill turned by horses; Horse′-mill′iner, one who provides the trappings for horses; Horse′-mint, a common European wild-mint: the American Monarda punctata—Sweet horse-mint, the common dittany; Horse′-nail, a nail for fastening a horse-shoe to the hoof; Horse′-pis′tol, a large pistol carried in a holster; Horse′-play, rough, boisterous play; Horse′-pond, a pond for watering horses at; Horse′-pow′er, the power a horse can exert, or its equivalent=that required to raise 33,000 lb. avoirdupois one foot per minute: a standard for estimating the power of steam-engines; Horse′-race, a race by horses; Horse′-rac′ing, the practice of racing or running horses in matches; Horse′-rad′ish, a plant with a pungent root, used in medicine and as a condiment; Horse′-rake, a rake drawn by horses; Horse′-rid′ing, a circus; Horse′-sense, plain robust sense; Horse′-shoe, a shoe for horses, consisting of a curved piece of iron.—adj. shaped like a horse-shoe.—ns. Horse′-sol′dier, a cavalry soldier; Horse′-tail, a genus of leafless plants with hollow rush-like stems, so called from their likeness to a horse's tail; Horse′-train′er, one who trains horses for racing, &c.; Horse′-way, a road by which a horse may pass; Horse′-whip, a whip for driving horses.—v.t. to strike with a horse-whip: to lash.—ns. Horse′woman, a woman who rides on horseback; Hors′iness; Hors′ing, birching a schoolboy mounted on another's back.—adj. Hors′y, of or pertaining to horses: devoted to horse racing or breeding.—A dark horse (see Dark); Flog a dead horse, to try to work up excitement about a threadbare subject; Get on, Mount, the high horse, to assume consequential airs; Put the cart before the horse (see Cart); Ride the wooden horse (see above); Take horse, to mount on horseback. [A.S. hors; Ice. horss, Old High Ger. hros (Ger. ross).]