horse

English Online Dictionary. What means horse‎? What does horse mean?

English

Alternative forms

• hoss, hawss (regional, pronunciation spelling)

Pronunciation

• (horse–hoarse merger)
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hô(r)s, IPA^(key): /hɔːs/

  • (General American) IPA^(key): /hoɹs/, [ho̞ɹs]

  • (General Australian) enPR: hô(r)s, IPA^(key): /hoːs/, [ho̝ːs]
  • Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)s
  • Homophone: hoarse
• (without the horse–hoarse merger)
  • (rhotic) IPA^(key): /hɔːɹs/
  • (non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /hɔːs/
  • (Early Modern English) /hɔːɹs/

Etymology 1

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 (“vehicle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”). Doublet of car. 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

horse (countable and uncountable, plural horses)

2. A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work.
   1. Any member of the species Equus ferus, including the Przewalski's horse and the extinct Equus ferus ferus.
   2. (zoology) Any current or extinct animal of the family Equidae, including zebras and asses.

   3. (military, sometimes uncountable) Cavalry soldiers (sometimes capitalized when referring to an official category).

   4. A component of certain games.
      1. (chess, informal) The chess piece representing a knight, depicted as a horse.

      2. (xiangqi) A xiangqi piece that moves and captures one point orthogonally and then one point diagonally.
   5. (slang) A large and sturdy person.

   6. (historical) A timber frame shaped like a horse, which soldiers were made to ride for punishment.

      Synonyms: Morgan's mule, Spanish donkey

3. Equipment with legs.
   1. 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.

   2. A frame with legs, used to support something.

4. (nautical) Type of 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.
5. (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.
6. (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 WikipediaWikipedia ).
7. (uncountable) The flesh of a horse as an item of cuisine.
8. (prison slang) A prison guard who smuggles contraband in or out for prisoners.
9. (dated, slang, among students) A translation or other illegitimate aid in study or examination.
10. (dated, slang, among students) Horseplay; tomfoolery.
11. (poker slang) A player who has been staked, i.e. another player has paid for their buy-in and claims a percentage of any winnings.

Usage notes

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

Synonyms

• (animal): caple (obsolete or dialectal), widge (poetic or archaic), cheval (obsolete), horsy, 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

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Maori: hōiho
• → Sranan Tongo: asi
• → Quiripi: hosses (from the plural horses)

Translations

See also

• Horse-related English words

Etymology 2

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

horse (third-person singular simple present horses, present participle horsing, simple past and past participle horsed)

1. (intransitive) Synonym of horse around

   Synonyms: horse about, horse around
2. (transitive) To play mischievous pranks on.
3. (transitive) To provide with a horse; supply horses for.
4. (obsolete) To get on horseback.
5. To sit astride of; to bestride.
6. (of a male horse) To copulate with (a mare).
7. To take or carry on the back.
8. To place (someone) on the back of another person, or on a wooden horse, chair, etc., to be flogged or punished.
   1. (by extension) To flog.
9. (transitive) To pull, haul, or move (something) with great effort, like a horse would.
10. (informal) To cram (food) quickly, indiscriminately or in great volume.
11. (transitive, dated) To urge at work tyrannically.
12. (intransitive, dated) To charge for work before it is finished.

Derived terms

• horse about
• horse around
• unhorse

Translations

Etymology 3

Unknown; probably originally criminals' cant based on the initial letter of both words.

Noun

horse (uncountable)

1. (slang) Heroin (drug).

   Synonyms: H, smack; see also Thesaurus:heroin

Translations

Further reading

• horse on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

Anagrams

• hoers, rohes, shoer, shero, shore, heros, hoser, Shore, RSeOH, Rohes

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

horse

1. Alternative form of hors

Etymology 2

Adjective

horse

1. Alternative form of hos

Etymology 3

Verb

horse

1. Alternative form of horsen (“to provide with a horse”)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

horse f (definite singular horsa, indefinite plural horser, definite plural horsene)

1. a mare
2. (derogatory) frivolous woman

Verb

horse (present tense horsar, past tense horsa, past participle horsa, passive infinitive horsast, present participle horsande, imperative horse/hors)

1. (intransitive, of a stallion) to run around amongst the mares
2. (intransitive, of a man) to run around, chiefly drunkenly

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxor.se/, [ˈhorˠ.ze]

Noun

horse

1. dative singular of hors

Scots

Etymology

From Old English hors.

Noun

horse (plural horse)

1. horse

Swedish

Noun

horse

1. (slang) horse (heroin)

   Synonyms: häst, (brown heroin) jonk

References

• Swedish Police Authority list of drug slang
• Slangopedia