1857. Notes and Queries, 2 S., iv., p. 192. A workman horses it
when he charges for more in his week’s work than he has really
done. Of course he has so much unprofitable work to get through in
the ensuing week, which is called dead horse.
1867. All the Year Round, 13 July, p. 59. To horse a man, is for
one of two men who are engaged on precisely similar pieces of work
to make extraordinary exertions in order to work down the other
man. This is sometimes done simply to see what kind of a workman a
new man may be, but often with the much less creditable motive of
injuring a fellow workman in the estimation of an employer.
The gray mare is the better horse. See Gray-mare.
Horse foaled of an acorn, subs. phr. (old).—1. The gallows. For
synonyms, see Triple-tree.
1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, ch. viii. I believe as how ’tis
no horse, but a devil incarnate; and yet I’ve been worse mounted,
that I have—I’d like to have rid a horse that was foaled of an
acorn (i.e., he had nearly met with the fate of Absalom).
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. The cove ... is as pretty a
Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an
acorn.
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 8. ... As to this little
fellow ... he shall never mount a horse foaled by an acorn, if I
can help it.
2. (military).—The triangles or crossed halberds under which soldiers
were flogged.
Old- (or Salt-) Horse, subs. (nautical). Salt beef. Also Junk and
Salt-junk.
1889. Chambers’s Journal, 3 Aug., 495. Mr. Clark Russell declares
that salt-horse works out of the pores, and contributes to that
mahogany complexion common to sailors, which is often mistakenly
attributed to rum and weather.
One-horse, adj. (American). Comparatively small, insignificant, or
unimportant.
1858. Washington Evening Star. On Friday last, the engineer of a
fast train was arrested by the authorities of a one-horse town in
Dauphin County, Pa., for running through the borough at a greater
rate of speed than is allowed by their ordinances.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 221. The indignant settler who has
been ill-treated, as he fancies, in court, denounces his attorney
as a ‘miserable, one-horse lawyer;’ and the Yankee newly arrived in
England does not hesitate to declare that ‘Liverpool is a poor
one-horse kind of a place,’ a term applied by Mark Twain to no less
a city than Rome itself; and a witty clergyman of Boston inveighed
once bitterly against ‘timid, sneaking, one-horse oaths, as
infinitely worse than a good, round, thundering outburst.’
1891. National Review, Sep., p. 127. Mr. Marion Crawford’s Witch of
Prague (Macmillan & Co.) is, as his compatriots would say, rather a
one-horse witch.
To be horsed, verb. phr. (old).—To be flogged [from the wooden-horse
used as a flogging-stool]; to take on one’s back as for a flogging.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, pt. III., c. 1. The spirit hors’d him like
a sack Upon the vehicle his back.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xvii. Our unfortunate hero
was publicly horsed, in terrorem of all whom it might concern.
1857. Thackeray, Virginians, ch. v. Serjeants, school-masters,
slave-overseers, used the cane freely. Our little boys had been
horsed many a day by Mr. Dempster.
1881. Notes and Queries, 1 Jan., p. 18. I got well horsed for such
a breach of discipline.
To fall away from a horseload to a cartload, verb. phr. (old).—See
quot.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horseplay. Fallen away from a
horseload to a cartload, spoken ironically of one considerably
improved in flesh on a sudden.
To flog the dead horse.—See Dead-horse and Horse, verb. sense 2.
To put the cart before the horse, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To begin at
the wrong end; to set things hind-side before.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horse.
To put the saddle on the right horse, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To
apportion accurately.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horse. Set the saddle on the
right horse, lay the Blame where the Fault is.
To ride on a horse with (or bayard of) ten toes, verb. phr.
(common).—To walk; to use the Marrowbone-stage. Cf., Shanks’s Mare.
1606. Breton, Good and Badde, p. 14. His trauell is the walke of
the woful, and his horse Bayard of ten toes.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, Somerset, ii., 291. At last he [Coryat]
undertook to travail into the East Indies by land, mounted on an
horse with ten toes.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Bayard.
As good as a shoulder of mutton to a sick horse, phr. (old).—Utterly
worthless.
1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, ii., 1. Counsel to him
is as good as a shoulder of mutton to a sick horse.
As strong as a horse, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Very strong: a general
intensitive.
Horse and horse, adv. phr. (American).—Neck and neck; even.
Horsebreaker (or Pretty Horsebreaker), subs. (colloquial).—A woman (c.
1860), hired to ride in the park; hence, a riding courtesan. See also
quot. 1864. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.
1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. iv., p. 33 (1873). Kate
Mellor was a horsebreaker, a bonâ fide horsebreaker; one who curbed
colts, and ‘took it out of’ kickers and rearers.
1865. Public Opinion, 30 Sep. These demi-monde people, anonymas,
horsebreakers, hetairæ ... are by degrees pushing their way into
society.
Horse-buss, subs. (old).—A loud-sounding kiss; a bite.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Horse-capper (-coper, -coser, -courser, or -chaunter), subs.
(common).—A dealer in worthless or ‘faked’ horses. [Originally good
English. To cope = to barter.] See Chanter. Hence Horse-coping and
Horse-duffing.
1616. Overbury, Characters (Rimbault, 9th ed., 1856, p. 120). An
arrant horse-courser hath the trick to blow up horseflesh as the
butcher does veal.
d. 1680. Butler, Remains (1759), ii., 458. A horse-courser is one
that hath read horses, and understands all the virtues and vices of
the whole species by being conversant with them, and how to take
the best advantage of both.
1742–4. North, Life of the Lord Keeper, i., 271. There were
horse-copers among them.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Horse-coser, vulgarly and corruptly
pronounced horse-coser, a dealer in horses. The verb to cose, was
used by the Scots, in the sense of bartering or exchanging.
1863. Sporting Life, 29 Apr., p. 4, col. 3. Copers and Chaunters
are now in full feather.
1864. London Review, 18 June, p. 643. Amongst the mysteries of
horse-flesh is the noble science of coping, and its practitioners
the horse-copers.
1874. G. A. Lawrence, Hagarene, ch. ii. He had lived somewhat
precariously by his wits; eking out the scanty allowance wrung from
his miserly old sire, by betting and horse-coping on a small scale.
1884. Daily News, 23 Aug., p. 4, c. 7. The most accomplished gipsy
copers, if they are not belied, are not satisfied with merely doing
up an unsound horse and selling him as a sound one, but frequently
steal outright the subject of their scientific and often lucrative
experiments.
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, ch. i. Poaching must be
something like cattle and horse-duffing.
1889. Answers, 27 July, p. 141, c. 1. Allow me to expose some more
tricks of horse copers.
1893. National Observer, 5 Aug., p. 291, col. 1. A veracious
horse-coper is a monster which the world ne’er saw.
Horse-collar, subs. (venery).—1. The female pudendum. For synonyms, see
Monosyllable.