Dictionary

ride a horse foaled by an acorn en · VERB

An allusion to the oak used to construct the gallows.

(obsolete, slang) To be hanged on the gallows.
- A sheep stealer, the mother told the child... and now the man twisted there, riding a horse foaled by an acorn, as the saying went, while the fat Welsh sheep in safety grazed the green pasture all around. 2008, Barbara Ker Wilson, The Lost Years of Jane Austen, Ulysses Press, →ISBN, page 21:
- You'll ride on a horſe that was foal'd of an acron. That is; the gallows. 1670, John Ray, “Proverbial Phraſes”, in A Compleat Collection of Engliſh Proverbs, 4th edition, published 1768, page 197:
- Fourteen, sir. No age to be riding a horse foaled by an acorn, I can tell you. 2003, Michael Crummey, River Thieves, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 272:
- "What ho, my kiddy!" cried Job, "don't be glimflashy; why you'd cry beef on a blater; the cove is a bob cull, and a pal of my own; and moreover, is as pretty a Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an acorn." 1828, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter 82, in Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman, page 385:

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
rides a horse foaled by an acorn	Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres		lexicographic
rode a horse foaled by an acorn	Tense=Past		lexicographic
ride a horse foaled of an acorn		alternative	lexicographic
mount a horse foaled by an acorn		alternative	lexicographic
riding a horse foaled by an acorn	Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic
ridden a horse foaled by an acorn	Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic