1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 5. Hyar’s a hoss as’ll make fire come.
1857. Gladstone, Englishman in Kansas, p. 43. Here, boys, drink. Liquors, captain, for the crowd. Step up this way, old hoss, and liquor.
Verb (venery).—1. To possess a woman. For synonyms, see Ride.
1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv., 3. Say’st thou so, filly? Thou shalt have a leap presently, I’ll horse thee myself, else.
2. (workmen’s).—See quots. Cf., Flog the dead horse.
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).