racehorsen.
/ˈreɪshɔːs/, U.S. /ˈreɪsˌ(h)ɔrs/ 1. † b. In plural. A gambling game in which small models of horses are used. Obsolete.
a. A horse bred or kept for racing; spec. a thoroughbred.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by purpose used for > [noun] > racehorse
runnera1500
match horse1607
racehorse1607
racer1629
race naga1635
wagoner1859
neddy1887
pony1896
bang-tail1921
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes Index sig. A6 Running or race Horses.
a1627 T. Middleton Women beware Women iii. ii, in 2 New Playes (1657) 160 I will allow you..Your race horses.
1657 R. Ligon True Hist. Barbados 105 Another pleasure, the better sort of the people of England take delight in,..is Race-Horses.
1698 Protestant Mercury 3–8 Mar. 2/1 Several Race-Horses went this Day for Newmarket, in order to run there in the Easter Holidays.
1754 Ess. Manning Fleet 42 A Race Horse is..generally computed to stand his Owner in 100l. a Year.
1797 Encycl. Brit. XV. 774/2 Race-horses have been for some time an object of taxation.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species i. 26 English racehorses have come to surpass in fleetness and size the parent Arabs.
1870 Regul. Railway Clearing-house §298 The charges for Race Horses conveyed in Race Horse Vans.
1916 J. Joyce Portrait of Artist i. 23 He told Stephen that his name was Athy and that his father kept a lot of racehorses that were spiffing jumpers.
1952 F. A. Brown Sport from Within v. 163 Why not do the job properly and buy a racehorse instead of a point-to-pointer?
2005 Racing Post (Nexis) 21 June 10 Many pop stars still regarded a racehorse as the ultimate status symbol.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > games of chance > other games of chance > [noun]
even or odd1538
love1585
Jack-in-the-box?1593
under-hat1629
pluck-penny1643
morra1659
catch-dolt1674
shuffle-cap1712
fair chance1723
E O1751
teetotum1753
rondo1821
cut-throat1823
hop-my-fool1824
odds and evens1841
spin-'em-round1851
halfpenny under the hat1853
racehorses1853
fan-tan1878
tan1883
pakapoo1886
legality1888
petits chevaux1891
pai gow1906
boule1911
put and take1921
1853 Earl of Malmesbury Mem. Ex-Minister (1884) I. 414 We played at race-horses after dinner.
1867 Times 24 Apr. 11/5 Sergeant Hammond..captured him and the gambling apparatus, known as ‘racehorses’.
2. In the names of other animals.† a. A steamer duck (genus Tachyeres). Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > freshwater birds > order Anseriformes (geese, etc.) > subfamily Merginae (duck) > [noun] > tachyeres brachypterus (steamer)
racehorsea1769
loggerhead1776
steamer1827
logger-headed duck1839
a1769 G. Robertson Disc. Tahiti (1948) 50 We shot two Birds called Race Horse, they are about the Size of a small Geese.
1777 G. Forster Voy. round World II. 520 Five large ducks of the short-winged sort, which our sailors called race-horses.
1839 C. Darwin in R. Fitzroy & C. Darwin Narr. Surv. Voy. H.M.S. Adventure & Beagle III. xii. 257 These birds were in former days called, from their extraordinary manner of paddling and splashing upon the water, race-horses.
b. Australian. Any of various swift-running Australian lizards; esp. (in full racehorse lizard) the small ring-tailed dragon, Ctenophorus (formerly Amphibolurus) caudicinctus, and (in full racehorse goanna) any of several large monitor lizards (genus Varanus).
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Lacertilia (lizards) > [noun] > family Agamidae (dragon lizards) > member of genus Amphibolurus (racehorse lizard)
Jew lizard1833
grammatophore1845
bloodsucker1852
racehorse lizard1923
1923 A. G. Bolam Trans-Austral. Wonderland 36 The race-horse or bicycle lizard..runs at an incredible speed (hence it receives the name of ‘the Racehorse’).
1962 B. W. Leake Eastern Wheatbelt Wildlife 100 The lace goanna—generally called racehorse goanna is well distributed through the Eastern Wheatbelt..growing up to four feet long.
1978 O. White Silent Reach iv. 50 The little racehorse lizards skittering away through the spinifex with their tails up.
1984 W. W. Ammon et al. Working Lives 250 A two-metre long bungarra had made his home under our cottage... This giant lizard (or race-horse goanna in popular parlance) was quite harmless.
c. Any of several pigfishes of the family Congiopodidae, esp. of the genus Congiopodus, found in cooler waters of the southern hemisphere.
ΚΠ
1949 J. L. B. Smith Sea Fishes S. Afr. 376 Congiopodus spinifer (Smith)... Racehorse. Seahorse. Horsefish.
1975 A. Wheeler Fishes of World 163/1 [Congiopodus] torvus. Racehorse, Horsefish... Found only in the seas around S. Africa from the Cape to Pondoland.
1994 J. S. Nelson Fishes of World (ed. 3) 315 Family Congiopodidae—racehorses (pigfishes or horsefishes). Marine; Southern Hemisphere.
3. In other extended uses: anything likened to a racehorse, typically in being lean, sleek, or swift.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > [noun] > one who or that which moves swiftly
goera1586
fast-goera1628
seven-league boots1707
flyer1795
careerer1844
racehorse1854
pacer1878
spinner1881
running mate1891
wind-splitter1893
speedster1927
swiftie1945
fastie1983
1854 H. Melville in Putnam's Monthly Mag. Mar. 319/1 You keep hovering about the entrance of the bay, in one beat and out the next. But at times..a race-horse of a current sweeps right across its mouth.
1903 H. Holmes Life & Adventures 34 I like a good monthly ship..in these racehorses a fellow's dead horse is hardly worked out before you think of getting into port again.
1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xviii. 164 He sat rolling a very thin cigarette, known as a ‘racehorse’.
1999 Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 4 June 34 Flooring the throttle on this car unleashed some serious horsepower, changing the whole nature of the car from being a snoozy saloon into a racehorse.
Compounds
C1. General attributive in sense ‘relating to, characteristic of, or resembling a racehorse (sense 1a)’. Also objective, in racehorse trainer.
ΚΠ
?1746 J. Symmonds Wandsworth Campaign i. 31 Clevario! take thy Coarce, And to the North repair with Race-Horse Speed.
1839 C. Dickens Let. ?25 Nov. (1965) I. 605 Barnaby moves—not at racehorse speed.
1845 W. G. Simms Wigwam & Cabin 1st Ser. 32 He had the sanguine, the race-horse temperament.
1962 D. Francis Dead Cert iii. 27 Pete Gregory, racehorse trainer.
1978 Eng. Jrnl. Dec. 72/1 What Charles Cooper refers to as ‘race-horse studies’..often compared tactics for forcing students through the hoops handed down from the textbook writers.
1987 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 31 Mar. b7 These are serious clothes that look..marvelously attractive on the tall models with racehorse bodies.
1992 Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times 24 Apr. 19/6 His racehorse style failed to deliver enough excitement or victories.
C2.
racehorse offence n. North American Sport (originally and chiefly Basketball) a system of attack focused on running, fast breaks, and frequent attempts to score rather than set plays and defensive strategies.
ΚΠ
1937 Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune 15 Mar. 2/8 Newark–With its ‘race horse’ offense is freshest in the mind of tournament followers.
1974 State (Columbia, S. Carolina) 15 Feb. 5- b/2 Freshman flash Adrian Dantley triggered a racehorse offense for Notre Dame with 27 points.
1998 R. Pennington Longhorn Hoops 74/2 Shorter and less talented than the Razorbacks, UT oiled its racehorse offense as the best chance of staying close.
Derivatives
ˈrace-horsing n. and adj.
ΚΠ
1745 H. Walpole Let. 27 Sept. (1846) II. 69 A silly race-horsing boy.
1894 Westm. Gaz. 7 June 2/3 Preferring supreme race-horsing to the supreme political office which he holds.
2000 Mirror (Nexis) 15 July (Features section) 13 Her extraordinary number of interests—from racehorsing to winkle clubs.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1607