HORSE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does horse mean? 

• HORSE (noun)
  The noun HORSE has 5 senses:

1. solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times

2. a padded gymnastic apparatus on legs

3. troops trained to fight on horseback

4. a framework for holding wood that is being sawed

5. a chessman shaped to resemble the head of a horse; can move two squares horizontally and one vertically (or vice versa)

  Familiarity information: HORSE used as a noun is common.

• HORSE (verb)
  The verb HORSE has 1 sense:

1. provide with a horse or horses

  Familiarity information: HORSE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HORSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

Equus caballus; horse

Hypernyms ("horse" is a kind of...):

equid; equine (hoofed mammals having slender legs and a flat coat with a narrow mane along the back of the neck)

Meronyms (parts of "horse"):

horseflesh; horsemeat (the flesh of horses as food)

poll (the part of the head between the ears)

gaskin (lower part of a horse's thigh between the hock and the stifle)

withers (the highest part of the back at the base of the neck of various animals especially draft animals)

horseback (the back of a horse)

horse's foot (the hoof of a horse)

encolure (the mane of a horse)

Meronyms (members of "horse"):

foal (a young horse)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "horse"):

roan (a horse having a brownish coat thickly sprinkled with white or gray)

pinto (a spotted or calico horse or pony)

palomino (a horse of light tan or golden color with cream-colored or white mane and tail)

sorrel (a horse of a brownish orange to light brown color)

bay (a horse of a moderate reddish-brown color)

liver chestnut (a solid dark brown horse)

chestnut (a dark golden-brown or reddish-brown horse)

high stepper; stepper (a horse trained to lift its feet high off the ground while walking or trotting)

pacer (a horse trained to a special gait in which both feet on one side leave the ground together)

post-horse; post horse; poster (a horse kept at an inn or post house for use by mail carriers or for rent to travelers)

workhorse (a horse used for plowing and hauling and other heavy labor)

harness horse (horse used for pulling vehicles)

stalking-horse (a horse behind which a hunter hides while stalking game)

steeplechaser (a horse trained to run in steeplechases)

bangtail; race horse; racehorse (a horse bred for racing)

hack; jade; nag; plug (an old or over-worked horse)

stable companion; stablemate (a horse stabled with another or one of several horses owned by the same person)

gee-gee (a word for horse used by children or in adult slang)

dawn horse; eohippus (earliest horse; extinct primitive dog-sized four-toed Eocene animal)

mesohippus (North American three-toed Oligocene animal; probably not directly ancestral to modern horses)

protohippus (Pliocene horse approaching donkeys in size)

male horse (the male of species Equus caballus)

female horse; mare (female equine animal)

mount; riding horse; saddle horse (a lightweight horse kept for riding only)

pony (a range horse of the western United States)

polo pony (a small agile horse specially bred and trained for playing polo)

wild horse (undomesticated or feral domestic horse)

hack (a horse kept for hire)

pony (any of various breeds of small gentle horses usually less than five feet high at the shoulder)

Holonyms ("horse" is a member of...):

Equus; genus Equus (type genus of the Equidae: only surviving genus of the family Equidae)

Derivation:

horse (provide with a horse or horses)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A padded gymnastic apparatus on legs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

gymnastic horse; horse

Hypernyms ("horse" is a kind of...):

exerciser; gymnastic apparatus (sports equipment used in gymnastic exercises)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "horse"):

pommel horse; side horse (a gymnastic horse with a cylindrical body covered with leather and two upright handles (pommels) near the center; held upright by two steel supports, one at each end)

buck; long horse; vaulting horse (a gymnastic horse without pommels and with one end elongated; used lengthwise for vaulting)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Troops trained to fight on horseback

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

cavalry; horse; horse cavalry

Context example:

500 horse led the attack

Hypernyms ("horse" is a kind of...):

military personnel; soldiery; troops (soldiers collectively)

Meronyms (members of "horse"):

cavalryman; trooper (a soldier in a motorized army unit)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A framework for holding wood that is being sawed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

buck; horse; sawbuck; sawhorse

Hypernyms ("horse" is a kind of...):

frame; framework (a structure supporting or containing something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "horse"):

trestle (sawhorses used in pairs to support a horizontal tabletop)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A chessman shaped to resemble the head of a horse; can move two squares horizontally and one vertically (or vice versa)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

horse; knight

Hypernyms ("horse" is a kind of...):

chess piece; chessman (any of 16 white and 16 black pieces used in playing the game of chess)

Domain category:

chess; chess game (a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent's king)

• HORSE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they horse    ... he / she / it horses   
Past simple: horsed   
Past participle: horsed   
-ing form: horsing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Provide with a horse or horses

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "horse" is one way to...):

cater; ply; provide; supply (give what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "horse"):

remount (provide with fresh horses)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

horse (solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times)

 Context examples 

She heard of a young horse at the farm house over the river, and though a lady had never ridden him, she resolved to try, because he was handsome and spirited.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Results showed the horse flies hovered over both types of animals at roughly the same rate but, over zebras, they did not always slow down fast enough to land successfully.

(Zebra stripes may 'dazzle' pathogen-packing horse flies, Wikinews)

By 2008, 350 horses lived there in 20 to 30 herds.

(Belly up to the bamboo buffet: Pandas vs. horses, NSF)

“David,” he said, making his lips thin, by pressing them together, “if I have an obstinate horse or dog to deal with, what do you think I do?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The researchers have used exosomes as “Trojan horses” to deliver palladium (Pd) catalysts into cancer cells.

(Scientists successfully deliver “Trojan horse” catalysts into cancerous tumour cells to destroy them from within, Universities of Granada)

White Fang watched the performance with increasing anxiety until he could contain himself no longer, when he sprang in front of the horse and barked savagely and warningly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It was no higher than a horse, but the dim outline suggested vast bulk and strength.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Influenza type A viruses can infect people, birds, pigs, horses, and other animals, but wild birds are the natural hosts for these viruses.

(influenza A virus, NCI Thesaurus)

I hardly looked at him, I was looking at the horses; but I think he had something of the Elliot countenance, I wonder the arms did not strike me!

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The influenza A virus can infect people, birds, pigs, horses, and other animals.

(influenza A virus, NCI Dictionary)