: a large solid-hoofed herbivorousungulate mammal (Equus caballus, family Equidae, the horse family) domesticated since prehistoric times and used as a beast of burden, a draft animal, or for riding
: an athlete whose performance is consistently strong and reliable
a team with the horses to win the pennant
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or H-O-R-S-E: a game in which players take turns attempting to duplicate successful basketball shots, a letter of the word "horse" is awarded for each missed attempt, and the first player to receive all five letters loses
Noun
a car with 275 horses
He lost a lot of money on the horses.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
In the early years of the tournament, ponies and horses were used to level the surface of the grass to a pristine standard by pulling a large roller, even wearing leather boots so as not to trample the freshly smooth surface or damage the grass.—Jon Haworth, ABC News, 13 July 2024 This star pattern represents a centaur, who is half man, half horse wielding a bow and arrow.—Dean Regas, The Enquirer, 13 July 2024 In February, Architectural Digest published a profile of Sofía Vergara, in which the actress credited Nader for her purchase of two pieces by Botero, a large painting of a matador and a black sculpture of a round, inflated horse.—Karen K. Ho, ARTnews.com, 13 July 2024 Another asks them to identify drawings of a tiger, a horse and a duck.—Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 12 July 2024 See all Example Sentences for horse
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'horse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun, Verb, and Adjective
Middle English hors, from Old English; akin to Old High German hros horse
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1)
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