I. horse 1 S1 W1 /hɔːs $ hɔːrs/ BrE AmE noun
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: hors ]
1 . [countable] a large strong animal that people ride and use for pulling heavy things ⇨ pony , equine , equestrian :
a horse and cart
Lee had never ridden a horse before.
2 . the horses British English informal horse races:
Jim likes a bet on the horses.
3 . [countable] a piece of sports equipment in a ↑ gymnasium that people jump over
4 . (straight/right) from the horse’s mouth if you hear or get information straight from the horse’s mouth, you are told it by someone who has direct knowledge of it
5 . horses for courses British English the process of matching people with suitable jobs or activities
6 . a two/three/four etc horse race a competition or an election that only two etc competitors can win
7 . a horse of a different color ( also a horse of another color American English ) something that is completely different from another thing
8 . horse sense old-fashioned sensible judgment gained from experience SYN common sense
9 . [uncountable] old-fashioned informal ↑ heroin
⇨ ↑ dark horse , ⇨ never/don’t look a gift horse in the mouth at ↑ gift (7), ⇨ be flogging a dead horse at ↑ flog (3), ⇨ hold your horses at ↑ hold 1 (15), ⇨ put the cart before the horse at ↑ cart 1 (4), ⇨ ↑ stalking horse , ↑ white horses
II. horse 2 BrE AmE verb
horse around/about phrasal verb
informal to play roughly ⇨ horseplay :
Stop horsing around – you’ll break something!