Dictionary

one-horse lawyer en · NOUN

Etymology

From the agricultural phrase one-horse meaning 'to be drawn/worked by a single horse.' This led to "one-horse" being expanded to mean anything small or contemptible.

Meanings

1. A lawyer who has only worked in a small town, lacking the experience and sophistication of more prominent lawyers.
   • The two chatted about several matters, and then the visitor commented, "Mr. Lincoln, if anybody had told me that in a general crisis like this the people were going out to a little one-horse town to pick out a one-horse lawyer for President, I wouldn't have believed it." 1998, Gene Griessman, B. Eugene Griessman, Abraham Lincoln, The Words Lincoln Lived By, page 53:
   • Then Warren picked up a one-horse lawyer down in his own town and he and that lawyer went to St. Paul where Warren made another speech, which—of course—from a lawyer's standpoint was wholly irrelevant and insulting. 2013, Clarence Darrow, Randall Tietjen, In the Clutches of the Law: Clarence Darrow's Letters, page 153:
   • I was a one horse lawyer in this one horse town. 2007, Bert S. Lang, A Divine Sneeze, page 89:

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