Dictionary

one-horse en · ADJ

Meanings

1. Drawn or worked by a single horse.
   • Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh! 1857, James Lord Pierpont, One Horse Open Sleigh (Jingle Bells):
   • He constructed a one-horse plough for me about two years ago, which only weighs 581b., for planting potatoes. 1839, British Farmer's Magazine - Volume 3, page 84:
   • Come to the wagon business I may have a pole put in front of that one-horse wagon and hitch em both to it. 2013, Theodore Rosengarten, All God's Dangers:
2. Having no competitor.
3. (broadly) Small, insignificant.
   • The Great Powers never think of us as a one-horse state. 2014, James A. Michener, A. Grove Day, Rascals in Paradise, page 132:
   • A Nestor may reappear as an elderly pedagogue, a Circe as the "Madam" of a one-horse brothel. 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
   • Going from its one-horse hotel, to the model hotel of Philadelphia, was almost too sudden a change even for my excellent constitution. 2016, Fanny Fern, Folly as It Flies, page 112:
   • Let us have no one-horse candidate for the Presidency. General Grant is the man. 1871, The Catholic Record - Volumes 1-2, page 47:

Forms

Deriveds

one-horse town · one-horse lawyer · one-horse race