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warhorse

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L330287 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

noun

Etymology: From war + horse.

  1. Any horse used in horse-cavalry, but especially one bearing an armoured knight.

    Just within the inner edge of the circle stood a soldier, in the military attire of a strange nation; and without it was his warhorse, in the center of a collection of mounted domestics, seemingly in readiness to undertake some distant journey.

    As he spoke, the knight-errant, who had remounted his war-horse, galloped forward to the royal stand, with a silken kerchief bound round his wounded arm.

  2. An experienced person who has been through many battles, situations or contests; someone who has given long service.

    Near-synonym: workhorse

    Among other accidents of that year was a Democratic president. Judge Atwood was a warhorse of Democracy.

  3. A regularly revived theatrical or musical work, as with Hamlet or a Beethoven symphony, or as excerpts thereto. May imply that the work in question has become hackneyed.

    a Wagner warhorse

    I remember taking the old warhorse, “Una Voce Poco Fa,” from Il Barbiere (Rossini) to three of the greatest living singing masters in Italy.

warhorse — meaning, definition (noun) · Vinony