Definition

1. Noun:

   • A large, solid-hoofed mammal: A domesticated herbivorous quadruped (Equus caballus) used for riding, racing, and carrying loads.
   • A piece in chess: A chess piece shaped like a horse's head, moving in an L-shape (two squares in one direction and one square perpendicular).
   • A piece of gymnastic equipment: A padded apparatus with legs, used for vaulting exercises.
   • A supporting framework: A structure, often with legs, used for holding or drying things (e.g., clothes, wood).
   • Cavalry: Soldiers who fight on horseback; mounted troops.

2. Verb:

   • To provide with a horse: To supply someone or something with a horse or horses.
   • To engage in playful, boisterous activity: To act in a silly, rowdy, or joking manner (often used with "around").

Examples

• Noun:

  • The farmer uses a horse to plow the field.
  • She moved her knight, also called a horse, to attack the queen.
  • The gymnast practiced her vault over the horse.
  • He hung the wet towels on the clothes horse.
  • The general sent the horse to flank the enemy.

• Verb:

  • The king will horse his knights before the battle.
  • The children were horsing around in the living room and knocked over a lamp.

Advanced Usage

• "To horse" (archaic command): An order to mount horses.

  • "To horse!" the commander cried, and the cavalry mounted quickly.

• "Horse of a different color": An entirely different matter or issue.

  • Promising to help is one thing, but paying for it is a horse of a different color.

Variants and Related Words

• Horsy/Horse (adj): Of, resembling, or characteristic of a horse or horses.
  • She has a horsy face.
• Horsepower (n): A unit of power (not a variant of "horse" itself, but derived from it).
• Seahorse (n): A type of small marine fish (a distinct compound word).

Synonyms

• Noun (animal): Steed, mount, equine.
• Verb (fool around): Clown (around), roughhouse, play the fool.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Horse around: To engage in rough, noisy, or playful behavior.
  • The teacher told the students to stop horsing around in the hallway.

Related Idioms

• Hold your horses: Be patient; wait a moment.
  • Hold your horses! Let me finish explaining before you leave.
• Dark horse: A little-known person or thing that emerges to prominence, especially in a competition.
  • The new candidate was a dark horse who surprisingly won the election.
• Get on your high horse: To behave in a haughty, superior, or arrogant manner.
  • He got on his high horse about modern art, claiming he alone understood it.
• Beat a dead horse: To waste effort on something that is already settled or cannot be changed.
  • Arguing about yesterday's decision is just beating a dead horse.

Verb

1. provide with a horse or horses

Noun

1. a chessman shaped to resemble the head of a horse; can move two squares horizontally and one vertically (or vice versa)
2. a framework for holding wood that is being sawed
3. troops trained to fight on horseback
   • 500 horse led the attack
4. a padded gymnastic apparatus on legs
5. solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times