acajou

en-noun

acajou (countable and uncountable, plural acajous)

/ˈæ.kəˌd͡ʒu/

Borrowed from French acajou (“cashew”), from Old Tupi akaîu. Doublet of cashew.

The wood from the mahogany tree or other trees from the family Meliaceae.


acceptance

acceptance (countable and uncountable, plural acceptances)

* First attested in 1574. From Middle French acceptance, from Old French accepter (“accept”). Equivalent to accept + -ance.

(horse racing, Australia, New Zealand, plural only) A list of horses accepted as starters in a race.


deal

en-verb

deal (third-person singular simple present deals, present participle dealing, simple past and past participle dealt or (nonstandard) dealed)

deals (present singular third-person)
dealing (participle present)
dealt (participle past)
dealt (past)
dealed (nonstandard participle past)
dealed (nonstandard past)

From Middle English delen, from Old English dǣlan (“to divide, part”), from Proto-West Germanic *dailijan, from Proto-Germanic *dailijaną (“to divide, part, deal”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰail- (“part, watershed”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian diele (“to divide, separate”), Dutch delen, German teilen, Swedish dela; and with Lithuanian dalinti (“divide”), Russian дели́ть (delítʹ).

cog

Wel said syr Uwayne go on your waye, and lete me dele.

1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book IV, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:

(obsolete, intransitive) To take action; to act.

syöttää

baseball slang: to pitch — see also pitch


deal

en-noun

deal (countable and uncountable, plural deals)

From Middle English dele (“plank”), from Middle Low German dele, from Old Saxon thili, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *þiljǭ (“plank, board”); cognate with Old English þille. Doublet of thill.

1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., p. 86,
Some Houses were […] entirely lock’d up, the Doors padlockt, the Windows and Doors having Deal Boards nail’d over them,

A brisk fire burned in the grate, there were three comfortable chairs, and a deal table with a water carafe, a bucket of coals, and a few other amenities.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

(uncountable) Wood that is easy to saw (from conifers such as pine or fir).


leg up

en-verb

leg up (third-person singular simple present legs up, present participle legging up, simple past and past participle legged up)

legs up (present singular third-person)
legging up (participle present)
legged up (participle past)
legged up (past)

(transitive, equestrianism) To walk a horse on a hard surface regularly.


book

Sranan Tongo: buku

Tok Pisin: buk
→ Rotokas: vuku

→ Chichewa: buku

→ Hawaiian: puke

→ Malagasy: boky

→ Maori: pukapuka (with reduplication)

→ Marshallese: bok

→ Motu: buka

→ Malagasy: boky

→ Shona: bhuku

→ Somali: buugga

i

possibly also from Afrikaans <i class="Latn mention" lang="af">boek</i>

→ Sotho: buka (possibly also from Afrikaans boek)

→ Zulu: ibhuku (possibly also from Afrikaans boek)

From Middle English bok, book, from Old English bōc, from Proto-West Germanic *bōk, from Proto-Germanic *bōks. Eclipsed non-native Middle English livret, lyveret (“book, booklet”) from Old French livret (“book, booklet”). Bookmaker sense by clipping.

have more chins than a Chinese phone book

why buy a book when you can join a library

why buy a book when you can join the library

(horse racing) The list of mares that a stallion will breed in a given season.

(horse racing) A list of the races that a jockey is scheduled to ride in.


cherry

→ Bengali: চেরি (ceri)

→ Burmese: ချယ်ရီ (hkyairi)

→ Cantonese: 車厘子／车厘子 (ce¹ lei⁴ zi²)

→ Hindi: चेरी (cerī)

→ Japanese: チェリー (cherī)

→ Kapampangan: tiéri

→ Korean: 체리 (cheri)

→ Malay: ceri

Indonesian: ceri

→ Maori: tiere

→ Punjabi: ਚੈਰੀ f (cairī)

→ Spanish: cherry

→ Swahili: cheri

→ Urdu: چیری (cerī)

→ Thai: เชอร์รี (chəə-rîi)

From Middle English chery, cherie, chirie, from Anglo-Norman cherise (mistaken as a plural) and Old English ċiris, ċirse (“cherry”), both ultimately from Vulgar Latin ceresia, derived from Late Latin ceresium, cerasium, from Ancient Greek κεράσιον (kerásion, “cherry fruit”), from κερασός (kerasós, “bird cherry”), and ultimately possibly of Anatolian origin (the intervocalic σ suggests a pre-Greek origin for the word). Doublet of cerise and kirsch.

dwarf cherry

P. fruticosa, P. pumila; Exocarpus strictus

Prunus subg. Cerasus
Prunus subg. Cerasus#Translingual

Prunus subg. Cerasus, trees or shrubs that bear cherries.

Non-isomorphism is detected whenever the algorithm finds a cherry v#x5F;1#x5C;inT#x5F;1

2004, Suleyman Cenk Sahinalp, S Muthukrishnan, Ugur Dogrusoz, Combinatorial Pattern Matching, Berlin […] : Springer-Verlag, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 210:

Step 3: Output the tree T. The edge lengths of T are determined recursively: If (x,y) is a cherry connected to node z as in Step 2

2005, Lior Pachter, Bernd Sturmfels, Algebraic Statistics for Computational Biology, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 74:

(graph theory) A subtree consisting of a node with exactly two leaves.

kahdesta lehtisolmusta koostuva alipuu

graph theory: subtree consisting of two nodes

The Indians have to get early wickets on the morrow and they will have the option of taking the new cherry.

2000, Woorkheri Raman, “Indians adopt safety first tactics”, in ESPNcricinfo, archived from the original on 2022-07-07, retrieved 2024-11-25:

Players are back out and it's Harmison to have first go with the cherry.

2007, Ben Dirs, “England v West Indies 1st Test”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2016-04-09, retrieved 2024-11-25:

(cricket, slang) A reddish mark left on the bat by the impact of the ball.


cherry

en-adj

cherry (comparative cherrier or more cherry, superlative cherriest or most cherry)

cherrier (comparative)
more cherry (comparative)
cherriest (superlative)
most cherry (superlative)

cornelian cherry

Cornus subg. Arctocrania, C. subg. Cornus, C. mas

A few years earlier, I’d restored my ’65 Mustang convertible to cherry condition—fire engine red, with matching tuck-and-roll—and I wasn’t surprised that it drew attention.

2003, John Morgan Wilson, Blind Eye, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 108:

All of my action figures are cherry

2006, “White & Nerdy”, in "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics), Straight Outta Lynwood, performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic:

(informal, often of cars) In excellent condition; mint condition.


hack

en-verb

hack (third-person singular simple present hacks, present participle hacking, simple past and past participle hacked)

hacks (present singular third-person)
hacking (participle present)
hacked (participle past)
hacked (past)

Abbreviation of hackney (“an ordinary horse”), probably from place name Hackney.

(equestrianism) To ride a horse at a regular pace; to ride on a road (as opposed to riding cross-country etc.).


ebony

en-noun

ebony (usually uncountable, plural ebonies)

From earlier heben, hebeny, from Middle English ebenif, hebenyf (influenced by Late Latin hebeninus), from Ecclesiastical Latin ebenius (“of ebony”), from Latin hebenus (“ebon tree”), from Ancient Greek ἔβενος (ébenos), from Egyptian hbnj, U13:n-Z4:M3

(uncountable) A hard, dense, deep black wood from various subtropical and tropical trees, especially of the genus Diospyros.

“You live up the road past the ebony tree, right?” he asked, looking past me.

2018, Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death, HarperVoyager, page 51:

(countable) A tree that yields such wood.


ebony

en-adj

ebony (comparative more ebony, superlative most ebony)

more ebony (comparative)
most ebony (superlative)

He called the ebony mistress of the establishment to him, and speaking to her kindly and winningly, as any dutiful husband should, told her to make the change, which she did.

1864, George Adams Fisher, The Yankee conscript: or, Eighteen months in Dixie:

No attempt was made in her new home to discontinue or even to conceal the presence of an ebony mistress and a thriving family of little mulattoes...

1931, Catherine MacFarlane Carswell, The life of Robert Burns:

Want to watch my gorgeous ebony friend, Almond Joy, naked and online 24/7? She recently ended a long-term relationship and is now fully enjoying being a 25 year-old single gal in Beverly Hills.

2004, Alyssa, “Ebony Girls Need Attention”, in alt.sex.escorts (Usenet):

Dark-skinned; black; especially in reference to African-Americans.


hobby

→ Catalan: hobby

→ Danish: hobby

→ Dutch: hobby

→ French: hobby

→ Galician: hobby

→ German: Hobby

→ Italian: hobby

→ Norwegian Bokmål: hobby

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: hobby

→ Polish: hobby

→ Portuguese: hobby

→ Romanian: hobby

→ Russian: хобби (xobbi)

→ Spanish: hobby

→ Swedish: hobby

Shortened from hobby-horse, from Middle English hoby, hobyn, hobin (“small horse, pony”), from Old French hobi, *haubi, haubby, hobin ("a nag, hobby"; > Modern French aubin, Italian ubino), of Germanic origin: from Old French hober, ober (“to stir, move”), from Old Dutch hobben (“to toss, move up and down”); or from North Germanic origin related to Danish hoppe (“a mare”), Old Swedish hoppa (“a young mare”), North Frisian hoppe (“horse”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *huppōną (“to hop”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewb- (“to bend; a bend, joint”). More at hop, hobble.
The meaning of hobby-horse shifted from "small horse, pony" to "child's toy riding horse" to "favorite pastime or avocation" with the connecting notion being "activity that doesn't go anywhere". Possibly originally from a proper name for a horse, a diminutive of Robert or Robin (compare dobbin).

der

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-hobby.wav

(equestrianism) An extinct breed of horse native to the British Isles, also known as the Irish Hobby


hazel

en-noun

hazel (usually uncountable, plural hazels)

From Middle English hasel, from Old English hæsl (“hazel, shrub”), from Proto-West Germanic *hasl, from Proto-Germanic *haslaz (“hazel”), from Proto-Indo-European *kóslos (“hazel”). Cognate with Dutch hazelaar (“hazel”), German Hasel (“hazel”), Swedish hassel (“hazel”), Latin corulus, corylus (“hazel-tree, hazelwood”), Irish coll (“hazel”).

The green turf was velvet underfoot. The blackbirds fluted in the hazels there.

1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:

Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.

1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273:

(countable) A tree or shrub of the genus Corylus, bearing edible nuts called hazelnuts or filberts.


SP

SP (countable and uncountable, plural SPs)

He was an atheist, a rationalist, a medical student of no great distinction, an SP punter, a singer of bawdy songs, an acknowledged expert in matters erotic.

1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 157:

It was the last time, too, when […] the races dominated the radio on Saturday afternoons and everyone had the number of an SP bookie.

1998, David Malouf, A First Place, Vintage, published 2015, page 196:


chestnut

chestnut (countable and uncountable, plural chestnuts)

→ Gujarati: ચેસ્ટનટ (cesṭanaṭ)

Formerly chesten nut, from Middle English chesten, Middle English chesteyne, chasteine, from Old English ċisten and reinforced by Old French chastaigne, both from Latin castānea, from Ancient Greek καστάνεια (kastáneia). Compare castanet.

pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire


wood

wood (countable and uncountable, plural woods)

Sranan Tongo: udu

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English wode, from Old English wudu, widu (“wood, forest, grove; tree; timber”), from Proto-West Germanic *widu, from Proto-Germanic *widuz (“wood”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- (“to separate”).
Cognate with Dutch wede (“wood, twig”), Middle High German wite (“wood”), Danish ved (“wood”), Swedish ved (“firewood”), Icelandic viður (“wood”). Further cognates include Irish fiodh (“a wood, tree”), Irish fid (“tree”) and Welsh gwŷdd (“trees”); all from Proto-Celtic *widus (“wood”). Unrelated to Dutch woud (“forest”), German Wald (“forest”) (see English wold).

der

This table is made of wood.

There was lots of wood on the beach.

O that men / (Canſt thou believe ?) ſhould be ſo ſtupid grown, / While yet the Patriark liv’d, who ſcap’d the Flood, / As to forſake the living God, and fall / To worſhip thir own work in Wood and Stone / For Gods !

1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1006–11:

He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him […] of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood.

1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

(uncountable) The substance making up the central part of the trunk and branches of a tree. Used as a material for construction, to manufacture various items, etc. or as fuel.

A wood beyond this moor was viewed as a border area in the seventeenth century.

He got lost in the woods beyond Seattle.

Macbeth ſhall neuer vanquiſh’d be, vntill / Great Byrnam Wood, to high Dunſmane Hill / Shall come againſt him.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 144, column 2, lines 92–94:

(countable, often as plurale tantum) A forested or wooded area.

[…] White has nothing but a lot of frozen wood on the board while Black operates on the Q-side.

1971, Chess Life & Review, volume 26, page 309:

(chess, uncountable, slang) Chess pieces.


wood

en-verb

wood (third-person singular simple present woods, present participle wooding, simple past and past participle wooded)

woods (present singular third-person)
wooding (participle present)
wooded (participle past)
wooded (past)

Their be ii good bellys, a chales, and a few veſtments of litil valure, the ſtuff beſide is not worth xl s. lead ther ys non except in ii gutters the which the p’or hath convey’d in to ye town, but that is ſuar yt is metely wodey’d in hege rowys.

1542, Sir Richard Devereux, letter, in Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, London: J. Nichols, published 1792, page 155

(transitive) To cover or plant with trees.

Immediatly, the other boate lying ready with their shot to skoure the place for our hand weapons to lande upon, which was presently done, although the land was very high and steepe, the Savages forthwith quitted the shoare, and betooke themselves to flight: wee landed, and having faire and easily followed for a smal time after them, who had wooded themselves we know not where […]

c. 1586, Sir Ralph Lane, “Lane’s Account of the Englishmen Left in Virginia”, in Henry Sweetser Burrage, editor, Early English and French Voyages: Chiefly from Hakluyt, 1534–1608, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1906, page 246

(reflexive, intransitive) To hide behind trees.


jump

Brill Publishers
hydraulic jump
jump cut
jump discontinuity
jump instruction

From Middle English jumpen (“to walk quickly, run, jump”), probably of Middle Low German or North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *gumpōną ~ *gumbōną (“to hop, skip, jump”), an iterative verb. The OED suggests an imitative origin. Others have connected it to Ancient Greek ἀθεμβούσα (athemboúsa, “uninhibited”), which is unlikely. Related to jumble. In the sense “to propel oneself” it displaced leap partially and spring largely.
Cognates
Cognate with Middle Dutch gumpen (“to jump”), Low German jumpen (“to jump”), Middle High German gumpen, gampen (“to jump, hop”) (dialectal German gampen, Alemannic German gumpe, Walser dialect kumpu), Old Norse goppa (“to jump”) Danish gumpe (“to jolt”), Swedish gumpa (“to jump”), Danish gimpe (“to move up and down”), Middle English jumpren, jumbren (“to mix, jumble”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

قَفْزَة

instance of propelling oneself into the air — see also leap

Heartless managed the scale the first jump but fell over the second.

(sports, equestrianism) An obstacle that forms part of a showjumping course, and that the horse has to jump over cleanly.


lane

From Middle English lane, lone, from Old English lanu (“a lane, alley, avenue”), from Proto-West Germanic *lanu, from Proto-Germanic *lanō (“lane, passageway”).
Cognate with Scots lone (“cattle-track, by-road”), West Frisian leane, loane (“a walkway, avenue”), Dutch laan (“alley, avenue”), German Low German Lane, Laan (“lane”), Swedish lån (“covered walkway encircling a house”), Icelandic lön (“a row of houses”).

cog

And it's Uncle Mo in front by two as they come to the top of the lane.


maiden

From Middle English mayden, meiden, from Old English mæġden (“girl”), originally a diminutive of mæġeþ (“girl”) via diminutive suffix -en, from Proto-West Germanic *magaþ, from Proto-Germanic *magaþs. Equivalent to maid + -en.

(horse racing) A racehorse without any victory, i.e. one having a "virgin record".

(horse racing) A horse race in which all starters are maidens.


nose

Sranan Tongo: noso

Aukan: nosu

Saramaccan: núsu

Audio (London, UK)

Audio (UK)

From Middle English nose, from Old English nosu, from Proto-West Germanic *nosu, variant of *nasō, old dual from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂s- ~ *nh₂es- (“nose, nostril”).
See also Saterland Frisian Noose, West Frisian noas, Dutch neus, Swedish nos, Norwegian nos (“snout”), German Low German Nees, Nes, Näs, German Nase, Swedish näsa, Norwegian nese, Danish næse (“nose”); also Latin nāris (“nostril”), nāsus (“nose”), Lithuanian nósis, Russian нос (nos), Sanskrit नासा (nā́sā, “nostrils”).

Red Rum only won by a nose.

(horse racing) The length of a horse’s nose, used to indicate the distance between horses at the finish of a race, or any very close race.

马鼻 (maa⁵ bei⁶, literally “horse's nose”)


draw

en-noun

draw (countable and uncountable, plural draws)

From Middle English drawen, draȝen, dragen (“to drag, pull, push, draw (out), go to, make, add, etc.”), from Old English dragan, from Proto-West Germanic *dragan, from Proto-Germanic *draganą, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to draw, pull”). Doublet of drag and draught.
cognates
* Albanian dredh (“to turn, spin”)
* Danish drage
* Dutch dragen
* German tragen (“to carry”)
* Old Armenian դառնամ (daṙnam, “to turn”)
* Sanskrit ध्रजस् (dhrájas, “gliding course or motion”)
* West Frisian drage

cog

(horse racing) The stall from which a horse begins the race.


distance

en-noun

distance (countable and uncountable, plural distances)

From Middle English distance, distaunce, destance (“disagreement, dispute; discrimination; armed conflict; hostility; trouble; space between two points; time interval”), from Anglo-Norman distance, distaunce, destance, Middle French distance, and Old French destance, destaunce, distaunce (“debate; difference, distinction; discord, quarrel; dispute; space between two points; time interval”) (modern French distance), and directly from their etymon Latin distantia (“difference, diversity; distance, remoteness; space between two points”) (whence also Late Latin distantia (“disagreement; discrepancy; gap, opening; time interval”)), from distāns (“being distant; standing apart”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Distāns is the present active participle of distō (“to be distant; to stand apart; to differ”), from dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, asunder; in two’) + stō (“to stand”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* Middle Dutch distancie, distantie (modern Dutch distantie); Dutch afstand (“distance”, literally “off-stand, off-stance”)
* German Distanz; German Abstand
* Italian distanza
* Portuguese distância
* Spanish distancia

afstand

(countable, uncountable) amount of space between points

An amount of space between points (often geographical points), usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.

(horse racing) Chiefly in by a distance: a space of more than 30 lengths (about 80 yards or 7.3 metres) between two racehorses finishing a race, used to describe the margin of victory; also (archaic), any space of 240 yards (about 219.5 metres) on a racecourse.

pitkä ero

space of more than 30 lengths between two racehorses finishing a race; any space of 240 yards on a racecourse

THere vvere a Great many Brave, Sightly Horſes vvith Rich Trappings that vvere brought out One day to the Courſe, and Only One Plain Nag in the Company that made ſport for All the reſt. But vvhen they came at laſt to the Tryal, This vvas the Horſe that ran the VVhole Field out of Diſtance, and VVon the Race. / The MORAL. Our Senſes are No Competent Judges of the Excellencies of the Mind.

1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Abstemius, &c.] Fab[le] CCCXXXIX. A Plain Horse Wins the Prize.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 296:

The amount of space between points (often geographical points), usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.

(horse racing) Originally, the space measured back from the winning post which a racehorse running in a heat must reach when the winner has covered the whole course, in order to run in a subsequent heat; also, the point on the racecourse that space away from the winning post; now, the point on a racecourse 240 yards from the winning post.

väli

space measured back from the winning post which a racehorse running in a heat must reach when the winner has covered the whole course, in order to run in a subsequent heat; point on the racecourse that space away from the winning post; point on racecourse 240 yards from the winning post


distance

en-verb

distance (third-person singular simple present distances, present participle distancing, simple past and past participle distanced)

distances (present singular third-person)
distancing (participle present)
distanced (participle past)
distanced (past)
distance (infinitive)

sijoittaa erilleen

to set (someone or something) at a distance from someone or something else

[H]e is of Opinion it is inhuman, that Animals ſhould be put upon their utmoſt Strength and Metal for our Diverſion only. Hovvever, not to be particular, he puts in for the Queen's Plate every Year, vvith Orders to his Rider never to vvin or be diſtanced; […]

1713 March 29 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “Wednesday, March 18. 1713.”, in The Guardian, number 6, London: […] J[acob] Tonson […]; and sold by A. Baldwin […], →OCLC, page [2], column 1:

(chiefly US, horse racing, archaic) Of a racehorse: to beat (another horse) by a certain distance; also (passive voice), to cause (a horse) to be disqualified by beating it by a certain distance.

of a racehorse: to beat (another horse) by a certain distance; to cause (a horse) to be disqualified by beating it by a certain distance


overlay

/ˈəʊ.vəˌleɪ/

From Middle English overleyen, from Old English oferleċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *obarlaggjan, from Proto-Germanic *uberlagjaną, equivalent to over- + lay. Cognate with Saterland Frisian uurläze, úurlääse, Dutch overleggen, German Low German overleggen, överleggen, German überlegen, Swedish överlägga, Norwegian overlegge. Compare overlie.

(horse racing) A horse going off at higher odds than it appears to warrant, based on its past performances.


break

From Middle English breken, from Old English brecan (“to break”), from Proto-West Germanic *brekan, from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”). The word is a doublet of bray.
Cognates
Cognates of Germanic origin include Scots brek (“to break”), West Frisian brekke (“to break”), Dutch breken (“to break”), Low German breken (“to break”), German brechen (“to break”), French broyer (“to crush, grind”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (brikan, “to break, destroy”), Norwegian brek (“desire, yearning”).
Also cognate with Albanian brishtë (“fragile”), Latin frangō (“break, break up, shatter”, verb), whence English fracture and other terms – fragile, frail, fraction, and fragment.

cog

Cigar was distracted at the break and let his five opponents get the jump.

1999, Jay Hovdey, Cigar: America's Horse, page 63:

Perhaps it stumbles to its knees at the break, effectively losing the race at the outset.

2010, John Alexander, Exotic Wagering the Winning Way, page 60:

(horse racing) The start of a horse race.


chalk

en-noun

chalk (countable and uncountable, plural chalks)

→ Hindi: चाक (cāk)

→ Japanese: チャコ (chako), チョーク (chōku)

→ Nepali: चक (cak)

→ Swahili: chaki

→ Swazi: íshóki

→ Thai: ชอล์ก (chɔ́k)

→ Tsonga: choko

→ Tulu: ಚಾಕ್ (cākŭ)

→ Yoruba: ṣọ́ọ̀kì

From Middle English chalk, chalke, from Old English ċealc, from Proto-West Germanic *kalk, borrowed from Latin calx (“limestone”), again borrowed from Ancient Greek χάλιξ (khálix, “pebble”). Doublet of calx and cauk.

(US, sports, chiefly basketball, horse racing) The favorite in a sporting event.


weight

en-verb

weight (third-person singular simple present weights, present participle weighting, simple past and past participle weighted)

weights (present singular third-person)
weighting (participle present)
weighted (participle past)
weighted (past)

From Middle English weight, weiȝte, weght, wight, from Old English wiht, ġewiht (“weight”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtiz ("weight"; compare *weganą (“to move”)), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to move; pull; draw; drive”). Equivalent to weigh + -th.
Cognate with Scots wecht, weicht (“weight”), Saterland Frisian Wächte (“scale”), Gewicht (“weight”), West Frisian gewicht (“weight”), Dutch gewicht (“weight”), German Low German Wicht, Gewicht (“weight”), German Wucht (“massiveness, force”), Gewicht (“weight”).

gloss

"weight"; compare <i class="Latn mention" lang="gem-pro">*weganą</i> (“to move”)

inh

(transitive, horse racing) To handicap a horse with a specified weight.


tissue

en-noun

tissue (countable and uncountable, plural tissues)

From Middle English tissu, from Old French tissu (“woven”), past participle of tistre (“to weave”), from Latin texō (“to weave”).

Pricing the first show is a matter of the bookmaker's individual judgment, relying upon advice from all quarters, particularly the tissue; but very soon in the betting exchanges it becomes clear that the sole criterion for the fixing of a horse's price is demand.

2016, Gerald Hammond, The Language of Horse Racing:

(horse racing, slang) The scratch sheet or racing form.


stick

stick (countable and uncountable, plural sticks)

→ Catalan: estic

→ Italian: stick

→ Korean: 스틱 (seutik)

→ Portuguese: stique, estique

→ Sranan Tongo: tiki

From Middle English stikke (“stick, rod, twig”), from Old English sticca (“rod, twig”), from Proto-West Germanic *stikkō, from Proto-Germanic *stikkô, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Stikke (“stick”), West Flemish stik (“stick”). Related to stigma.

der

better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick

better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

better than a poke in the eye with a shitty stick

it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

(horse racing) The short whip carried by a jockey.

A stick-like item:
The short whip carried by a jockey.


flat

From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् (prathas, “extension”). Doublet of plat and pleyt.
The noun is from Middle English flat (“level piece of ground, flat edge of a weapon”), from the adjective.
The algebraic sense was coined by Serre in a 1956 paper, originally as French plat.

inh

This horse will do better over the flat.

flat racing, the flat season

In light of Horse Racing Ireland's Covid-19 contingency plan announcement, that whenever racing resumes the Flat will be given priority, Elliott has decided to keep a number of talented jumpers on the go during the summer, with a view towards a dual-purpose campaign.

2020, Brian Sheerin, Racing Post, "Gordon Elliott maps out summer Flat campaigns for talented jumpers" (article) https://www.racingpost.com/news/gordon-elliott-maps-out-summer-flat-campaigns-for-talented-jumpers/431475

2021 (retrieved), racing365.com, "Flat Racing Explained" https://racing365.com/flat-racing-explained/
In British horse racing, the classics are a series of horse races run over the flat (i.e. without jumps).

An area of level ground (sometimes covered with shallow or tidal water).

(horse racing, with 'the' or attributively, sometimes with capital) Level horse-racing ground, as contrasted with courses incorporating jumps, or the racing done on such ground.

As forecast, Joe suspected nothing as he pottered round the flat in the sunshine, absorbed in the task of picking winners.

1963, George Blaikie, Scandals of Australia's Strange Past, Adelaide: Rigby Limited, page 117:

(Australia, horse racing, with 'the' or attributively, sometimes with capital) the area in the centre of a racecourse.


handle

desctree

→ Japanese: ハンドル (handoru)
→ Hokkien: 捍多路 (hăn-tó͘-luh)
→ Sakizaya: handulu

From Middle English handel, handle, from Old English handle (“a handle”), from handlian (“to handle, feel, deal with, discuss”). See verb below. Cognate with Danish handel (“a handle”).

(horse racing, gambling) The amount wagered in the various pari-mutuel pools for a particular event or events.


pull

en-verb

pull (third-person singular simple present pulls, present participle pulling, simple past and past participle pulled)

pulls (present singular third-person)
pulling (participle present)
pulled (participle past)
pulled (past)

push

antonym(s) of “apply force to (something) so it comes towards one”

-ʊl (accents with foot–goose merger or full–fool merger)

Verb from Middle English pullen, from Old English pullian (“to pull, draw, tug, pluck off”), of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to West Frisian pûlje (“to shell, husk”), Middle Dutch pullen (“to drink”), Middle Dutch polen (“to peel, strip”), Low German pulen (“to pick, pluck, pull, tear, strip off husks”), Icelandic púla (“to work hard, beat”).
Noun from Middle English pul, pull, pulle, from the verb pullen (“to pull”).

cog

it's not the whistle that pulls the train

'I never liked Bowler, and I had my suspicions when Captain Ferndale persuaded you to put him up in that race. I did not discover until some time after that he pulled the horse.'

1897, Nat Gould, Not So Bad After All, page 200:

(horse racing, transitive) To impede the progress of (a horse) to prevent its winning a race.


classic

From French classique, from Latin classicus (“relating to the classes of Roman citizenry, especially the highest”), from classis. By surface analysis, class + -ic.

der

The goal of the top horses was to win a Classic (or preferably three, thus claiming the Triple Crown) or the Ascot Gold Cup, […]

2012, Dr Joyce Kay, Professor Wray Vamplew, Encyclopedia of British Horse Racing, page 316:

(horse racing) Any of the British Classic Races, five long-standing Group 1 horse races run during the traditional flat racing season.


passage

From French passager, from Italian passeggiare.

(dressage) A movement in classical dressage, in which the horse performs a very collected, energetic, and elevated trot that has a longer period of suspension between each foot fall than a working trot.


passage

en-verb

passage (third-person singular simple present passages, present participle passaging, simple past and past participle passaged)

passages (present singular third-person)
passaging (participle present)
passaged (participle past)
passaged (past)

After a spring or two, the horse passaged and reared, and lighting on a flat slab of rock which cropped up in the middle of the road, slipped sideways and fell with a loud crash […]

1915, Cunninghame Graham, Hope, page 18:

(intransitive, dressage) To execute a passage movement.


bishop

bishop (third-person singular simple present bishops, present participle bishoping or bishopping, simple past and past participle bishoped or bishopped)

bishops (present singular third-person)
bishoping (participle present)
bishopping (participle present)
bishoped (participle past)
bishoped (past)
bishopped (participle past)
bishopped (past)

From Middle English bischop, bishop, bisshop, biscop, from Old English bisċop (“bishop”), from Proto-West Germanic *biskop, from Vulgar Latin (e)biscopus, from classical Latin episcopus (“overseer, supervisor”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “overseer”), from ἐπί (epí, “over”) + σκοπός (skopós, “watcher”), used in Greek and Latin both generally and as a title of civil officers. Cognate with all European terms for the position in various Christian churches; compare bisp.

der

1727, R. Bradley, Family Dict. at "Horse"
This way of making a Horse look young is... called Bishoping.

Bishopped, or To bishop. A term among horſe dealers, for burning the mark into a horſe's tooth, after he has loſt it by age... It is a common ſaying of milk that is burnt to, that the biſhop has fet his foot in it. Formerly, when a biſhop paſſed through a village, all the inhabitants ran out of their houſes to ſolicit his bleſſing, even leaving their milk, &c. on the fire, to take its chance; which, when burnt to, was ſaid to be biſhopped.

1788, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, Francis Grose:

I found his teeth had been filed down and bishoped with the greatest neatness and perfection.

1840, E. E. Napier, Scenes & Sports Foreign Lands, I. v. 138:

(by extension, of equestrianism) To make a horse seem younger, particularly by manipulation of its teeth.


milkshake

(slang, horse racing) An alkaline supplement administered to a horse to improve its racing performance.


milkshake

en-verb

milkshake (third-person singular simple present milkshakes, present participle milkshaking, simple past and past participle milkshaked)

milkshakes (present singular third-person)
milkshaking (participle present)
milkshaked (participle past)
milkshaked (past)

(transitive, slang, horse racing) To administer an alkaline supplement to (a horse) to improve its racing performance.


ironwood

en-noun

ironwood (countable and uncountable, plural ironwoods)

From iron + wood, because of its toughness.

ijzerhout

any of a number of tree species known for having a particularly solid wood

Lydia and the boys lived in a shabby, prefabricated house of three rooms, which had been set down in the shade of an ironwood.

1987, Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines, Vintage, published 1998, page 139:

Any of numerous tree species known locally for having a particularly solid wood, or the wood of such species itself.

(Australia) Acacia esthrophiolata, Acacia excelsa, Acacia melanoxylon, Acacia stenophylla, or Erythrophleum chlorostachys.


walnut

walnut (countable and uncountable, plural walnuts)

From Middle English walnote, walnutte, walnotte, from Old English wealhhnutu (“walnut”, literally “foreign nut”), from Proto-Germanic *walhaz (“foreigner”) + *hnuts (“nut”). Cognate with Dutch walnoot, German Walnuss, Swedish valnöt, Icelandic valhneta. Compare more recent term Welsh onion, which also uses Welsh to mean “foreign”.


length

en-noun

length (countable and uncountable, plural lengths)

From Middle English lengthe, from Old English lengþ, lengþu, from Proto-West Germanic *langiþu, from Proto-Germanic *langiþō, equivalent to long + -th. Cognate with Scots lenth, lainth (“length”), Saterland Frisian Loangte (“length”), West Frisian lingte, langte (“length”), Dutch lengte (“length”), German Low German Längde, Längd, Längte, Längt (“length”), Danish længde (“length”), Swedish längd (“length”), Icelandic lengd (“length”).

(horse racing) The length of a horse, used to indicate the distance between horses at the end of a race.


prep

prep (countable and uncountable, plural preps)

(horse racing) A preparatory race or workout.


volt

(archaic, equestrianism) A circular movement in which the horse goes round in a small circle.


heater

→ Japanese: ヒーター (hītā)

(horse racing) A dead heat; a race in which two or more competitors reach the finish line simultaneously.


horse racing

A sport where horses and their jockeys compete to race around a track the fastest.

跑馬

a sport where horses and their jockeys compete to be fastest


horse race

An exciting and arduous competition (as in a political campaign).

kilpajuoksu

an exciting and arduous competition (as in a political campaign)


bar

From Middle English barren, from Old French barrer, from Medieval Latin barrare (“to bar”), from the noun. Cognate to Occitan barrar, Spanish barrar, Portuguese barrar.
Preposition properly imperative of the verb. Compare barring.

Leg At Each Corner is at 3/1, Lost My Shirt 5/1, and it's 10/1 bar.

(horse racing) Denotes the minimum odds offered on other horses not mentioned by name.


timber

timber (countable and uncountable, plural timbers)

From Middle English tymber, from Old English timber, from Proto-West Germanic *timr, from Proto-Germanic *timrą, from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“build, house”) (see Proto-Indo-European *dṓm).
Cognates include Dutch timmer, Old High German zimbar (German Zimmer), Norwegian tømmer, Old Norse timbr, Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌼𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 (timrjan, “to build”), Latin domus and Ancient Greek δόμος (dómos).

der

collect timber

cut down timber

(uncountable) Trees in a forest regarded as a source of wood.

(outside Canada, US, uncountable) Wood that has been pre-cut and is ready for use in construction.

خَشَب

wood that has been cut ready for construction


log

From Middle English logg, logge (first recorded in Anglo-Latin as loggum), of uncertain origin, but probably from Old Norse lóg, lág (“felled tree, log”), derived from Old Norse liggja (“to lie”). If so, then cognate with Norwegian låg (“fallen tree”), Dutch loog (“wood, timber, lumber”).
Alternatively, directly from Norwegian låg (“fallen tree”), which could have been borrowed through the Norwegian timber trade. However the Old Norse/Middle Norwegian vowel is long while Middle English vowel is short.

(mining) A weight or block near the free end of a hoisting rope to prevent it from being drawn through the sheave.


log

en-verb

log (third-person singular simple present logs, present participle logging, simple past and past participle logged)

logs (present singular third-person)
logging (participle present)
logged (participle past)
logged (past)

Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.

2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:

(intransitive) To cut down trees in an area, harvesting and transporting the logs as wood.


log

Ellipsis of log out, itself from Etymology 2.

You only won that game because your last opponent logged. That's no fair!

(video games) To log out; to disconnect from an online video game.


allowance

en-noun

allowance (countable and uncountable, plural allowances)

→ Cebuano: alawans

→ Malay: élaun

From Middle English allouance, from Old French alouance.
Morphologically allow + -ance.

On the Flat, an apprentice jockey starts with an allowance of 7 lb.

(horse racing) A permitted reduction in the weight that a racehorse must carry.


aid

aid (countable and uncountable, plural aids)

From Middle English aide, eide, ayde, from Old French eide, aide, from aidier, from Latin adiūtō, adiūtāre (“to assist, help”). Cognates include Spanish ayuda, Portuguese ajuda and Italian aiuto.

aide

aide-de-camp; obsolete except in sense of

(countable, chiefly in the plural, horse racing) The rider's use of hands, legs, voice, etc. to control the horse.


manage

From Early Modern English manage, menage, from Middle English *manage, *menage, from Old French manege (“the handling or training of a horse, horsemanship, riding, maneuvers, proceedings”), probably from Old Italian maneggiare (“to handle, manage, touch, treat”), ultimately from Latin manus (“the hand”); see manual.

You must draw [the horse] in his career with his manage, and turn, doing the corvetto, leaping &c..

1622, Henry Peacham (Jr.), The Compleat Gentleman:


root

en-verb

root (third-person singular simple present roots, present participle rooting, simple past and past participle rooted)

roots (present singular third-person)
rooting (participle present)
rooted (participle past)
rooted (past)

From Middle English wrōten (“to dig with the snout”), from Old English wrōtan, from Proto-Germanic *wrōtaną (“to dig out, to root”). Related to Old English wrōt (“snout; trunk”). Loss of initial w- probably due to influence from the related noun (Etymology 1).

furgar

coarse slang: to have sexual intercourse

(equestrianism, of a horse) To tug or pull at the reins aggressively by driving the head downwards while wearing a bit.

搶口

of a horse: to tug or pull at the reins aggressively by driving the head downwards


oaken

From Middle English oken (also eken), from Old English ācen, ǣċen (“of oak”), from Proto-Germanic *aikīnaz, equivalent to oak + -en (adjectival suffix). Cognate with Dutch eiken (“oaken”), German eichen (“oaken”), Icelandic eikinn (“oaken”).

Captain Jemmy, taking up three bottles one after another and finding them all empty, ordered up three more, and drew his chair up to the hearth, where he sat kicking the oaken logs viciously with his long legs.

1891, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, The Blue Pavilions:

Made from the wood of the oak tree. Also in metaphorical uses, suggesting robustness.


oak

en-noun

oak (countable and uncountable, plural oaks)

Inherited from Middle English ook, oke, aik, ake, from Old English āc (also as Old English ǣċ), from Proto-West Germanic *aik, from Proto-Germanic *aiks, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyǵ- (“oak”).
Cognates
From Proto-Germanic: Scots aik, West Frisian iik, Dutch eik, German Eiche, German Low German Eek, Danish eg, Norwegian Bokmål eik, Norwegian Nynorsk eik, Swedish ek, Yiddish אייכנבוים (eykhnboym).
From Proto-Indo-European: Latin aesculus (“Durmast oak”), Lithuanian ąžuolas (“oak”), Albanian enjë (“juniper, yew”), Ancient Greek αἰγίλωψ (aigílōps, “Turkey oak”)).

cog

Any tree of other genera and species of trees resembling typical oaks of genus Quercus in some ways.

Toxicodendron, poison oak, in family Anacardiaceae


cross country

en-noun

cross country (countable and uncountable, plural cross countries or cross countrys)

cross countries (plural)
cross countrys (plural)

(sports) A running sport popular in US high schools, colleges, etc., where participants race over varying terrain (e.g. golf courses, roads, etc.) in approximately 5- to 10-kilometre races. Abbreviated XC.

A phase of the equestrian sport of three day eventing, which the horse and rider travel over varied terrain and jump natural obstacles.

(countable) Flight between two points or aerodromes using navigational techniques.


chaser

Inherited from Middle English chaser, chacer, chasour, borrowed from Old French chaceür, chaceor, from chacier (“to chase, hunt”); later senses from or influenced by chase (“pursue”) + -er. Doublet of chasseur.

преследва́ч

person or thing (ship, plane, car, etc.) who chases

"[I]t looked like The Fellow was the best steeplechaser in many years. He'd earned the best speed rating I'd ever given a chaser."

2002, Nick Mordin, Betting for a Living, page 351:

"Wild Risk...had his greatest successes as a steeplechaser rather than a flat racer... It is rare indeed that a 'chaser - even one as good as wild risk - makes a good flat sire."

2003, Avalyn Hunter, American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002, page 458:

Oh, that final furlong! It can be both agony and ecstasy. Anyone who doubts that should have seen the television close-up of Jim Lewis as his great chaser Best Mate came up the final hill at Cheltenham in 2004 to clich a hat-trick of Gold Cups. ... Best mate is the best steeplechaser we have seen for years and all being well will be at the Cheltenham Festival again in 2005 to try and make it four Gold Cups.

2004, Sports Ticket: Live the Action! by Sportsfile, page 179

(equestrianism) A horse trained for steeplechasing; a steeplechaser.

(equestrianism, obsolete) A hunter (a horse bred and trained for use in hunting).


yew

yew (countable and uncountable, plural yews)

From Middle English ew, from Old English īw, ēow, from Proto-West Germanic *īhu, from Proto-Germanic *īhwaz (compare Icelandic ýr), masculine variant of *īwō (compare Dutch ijf, German Eibe), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyHw-.
See also Hittite [script needed] (eja, “type of evergreen”), Welsh yw (“yews”), Irish eo [both cognates of Old English īw, Old English ēow]; and Latgalian īva (“bird cherry”), Lithuanian ievà (“bird cherry”), Russian и́ва (íva, “willow”).

cog

Old Yew, which graspest at the stones
That name the under-lying dead,
Thy fibres net the dreamless head,
Thy roots are wrapt about the bones.

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto II:

Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.

1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273:

At Darley Dale, in Derbyshire, there is another yew about 1,000 years younger with a 32 ft girth, while a mighty yew at Goudhurst, Kent, has a bench seating 12 in its hollow trunk.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 119:

Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata#Translingual

(countable) A species of coniferous tree, Taxus baccata, with dark-green flat needle-like leaves and seeds bearing red arils, native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia.

(countable, by extension) Any tree or shrub of the genus Taxus.

Other conifers resembling plants in genus Taxus

To prevent a too great consumption of yew, bowyers were directed to make four bows of witch-hazel, ash or elm, to one of yew, and no person under seventeen years of age, unless possessed of moveables worth forty marks, of the son of parents having an estate of ten pounds per annum might shoot in an yew bow, under a penalty of 6s. 8d.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 37:

(uncountable) The wood of the such trees.


place

en-noun

place (countable and uncountable, plural places)

Pijin: ples

Tok Pisin: ples

From Middle English place, conflation of Old English plæċe (“place, an open space, street”) and Old French place (“place, an open space”), both from Latin platea (“plaza, wide street”), from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa), shortening of πλατεῖα ὁδός (plateîa hodós, “broad way”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“to spread”), extended form of *pleh₂- (“flat”). Displaced native Old English stōw, stede, and -ern. Compare also English pleck (“plot of ground”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot, location”), Dutch plek (“place, spot, patch”). Doublet of piatza, piazza, and plaza.

pleace

some English dialects: 18th–19th centuries; Scots: until the 17th century

all over the place like a mad woman's custard

lightning does not strike twice in the same place

lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place

lightning never strikes twice in the same place

there is a place and time for everything

there is a time and place for everything

there's a time and a place for everything

to win a bet on a horse for place

(social) A responsibility or position in an organization.

(horse racing) The position of first, second, or third at the finish, especially the second position.


hurdle

→ Japanese: ハードル (hādoru)

From Middle English hurdel, hirdel, herdel, hyrdel, from Old English hyrdel (“frame of intertwined twigs used as a temporary barrier”), diminutive of *hyrd, from Proto-Germanic *hurdiz, from Pre-Germanic *kr̥h₂tis, from Proto-Indo-European *kreh₂-. Cognate with Dutch horde, German Hürde.

inh

He ran in the 100 metres hurdles.

(athletics, equestrianism) An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race.

حَاجِز

artificial barrier over which people or horses jump in a race


rank

en-adj

rank (comparative ranker or more rank, superlative rankest or most rank)

ranker (comparative)
more rank (comparative)
rankest (superlative)
most rank (superlative)

From Middle English rank (“strong, proud”), from Old English ranc (“proud, haughty, arrogant, insolent, forward, overbearing, showy, ostentatious, splendid, bold, valiant, noble, brave, strong, full-grown, mature”), from Proto-West Germanic *rank, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“straight, direct”). Cognate with Dutch rank (“slender, slim”), Low German rank (“slender, projecting, lank”), Danish rank (“straight, erect, slender”), Swedish rank (“slender, shaky, wonky”), Icelandic rakkur (“straight, slender, bold, valiant”).

cog

If Safford happens to be driving a "rank" horse, one that insists on getting away fast, he goes along with the rest, […]

1949, The New Yorker (volume 25, part 3, page 46)

(obsolete) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.

(horse racing) Headstrong; difficult to control.


silk

en-noun

silk (countable and uncountable, plural silks)

From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkaĩ), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲／丝 (sī, “silk”)). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.

you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear

(horse racing, usually in the plural) The garments worn by a jockey displaying the colors of the horse's owner.


bounce

en-verb

bounce (third-person singular simple present bounces, present participle bouncing, simple past and past participle bounced)

bounces (present singular third-person)
bouncing (participle present)
bounced (participle past)
bounced (past)

From Middle English bounsen, bunsen (“to beat, thump”), cognate with Scots bunce, bonce (“to bounce”). Of uncertain origin. Perhaps imitative, related to bump, or related to Middle English bonchen (“to pound, beat”) and Dutch bonken (“to bump”).
Compare Saterland Frisian bumzje (“to pound, bang, bounce”), West Frisian bûnzje (“to throb, bounce, pulsate”), Dutch bonzen (“to thump, knock, throb, bounce”), German Low German bunsen, bumsen (“to beat, bounce”), German bumsen (“to thud, bang, pound”).

unc

uncertain

onomatopoeic

imitative

cog

(horse racing, slang) To race poorly after a successful race.


bounce

en-noun

bounce (countable and uncountable, plural bounces)

unc

uncertain

onomatopoeic

imitative

(horse racing, slang) The situation where a horse races poorly after a successful race.


jail

en-noun

jail (countable and uncountable, plural jails)

→ Hindustani:

Hindi: जेल (jel)

Urdu: جیل (jel)

→ Punjabi: ਜੇਲ੍ਹ (jelh)

→ Welsh: jêl, jael

From Middle English gayole, gaylle, gaille, gayle, gaile, via Old French gaiole, gayolle, gaole, from Medieval Latin gabiola, for Late Latin caveola, a diminutive of Latin cavea (“cavity, coop, cage”). Doublet of caveola and related to cage. More at cajole.

(horse racing, uncountable) The condition created by the requirement that a horse claimed in a claiming race not be run at another track for some period of time (usually 30 days).

horse racing: condition of not being able to run at another track for some period of time

väliaikainen kilpailurajoitus myynnin jälkeen


stretch

Esperanto: streĉi

From Middle English strecchen, from Old English streċċan (“to stretch, hold out, extend, spread out, prostrate”), from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan (“to stretch, make taut or tight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg-, *streg-, *treg- (“stiff, rigid”). Cognate with West Frisian strekke, Dutch strekken (“to stretch, straighten”), German strecken (“to stretch, straighten, elongate”), Danish strække (“to stretch”), Swedish sträcka (“to stretch”), Dutch strak (“taut, tight”), Albanian shtriqem (“to stretch”). More at stark.

cog

time stretch analog-to-digital converter

(horse racing) The homestretch, the final straight section of the track leading to the finish.


balsa

en-noun

balsa (countable and uncountable, plural balsas)

→ Irish: balsa

Borrowed from Spanish balsa, from a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia, probably Basque [Term?] or Iberian [Term?]. Not related to balsam.

A large tree, Ochroma pyramidale, native to tropical America, with wood that is very light in weight.

A raft or float, used principally on the Pacific coast of South America.


gait

From Middle English gate (“way”), from Old Norse gata (“road”), from Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ. Compare gate.

(equestrianism) One of the different ways in which a horse can move, either naturally or as a result of training.


hod

Probably an alteration of hot (“(Northern England, Scotland) large basket for carrying earth, etc.”), from Middle English hott, hote, hotte (“large basket or pannier for carrying earth, etc.; unit of measure for grain; hut or shed (perhaps originally of wattlework); lump of dirt (?)”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman and Old French hote, hotte (“large basket carried on the back”) (modern French hotte (“carrying basket”)), from Frankish *hotta (“basket”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *hud- (“to shake”) (see further at etymology 1), ultimately an onomatopoeia of the swaying movement of such a basket (compare Middle Dutch hotten (“to jolt; shake”)).
cognates
* German Hotte (“wooden basket carried on the back; (specifically) basket for collecting grapes from a vineyard”) (Rhineland, Swabia), Hutte (“basket for collecting grapes from a vineyard”) (Alsace, Switzerland)
* Late Latin hotta, hottus (“hod”)

cog

'Clerking' is perhaps the most difficult and most admired job on a racecourse. The next time you see a bookmaker at his hod, waving his ticket-filled hands, shouting the odds, look to his left, just back a bit—out of the limelight. The bloke sitting there with his head buried deep in a ledger is the clerk.

2006, Tommy Steele, chapter 6, in Bermondsey Boy: Memories of a Forgotten World, large print edition, Bath, Somerset: Windsor Paragon; BBC Audiobooks, published 2007, →ISBN, page 64:


jigger

→ Catalan: gigre

From jig + -er (agent suffix). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German gīga (“fiddle”).

(horse racing) An illicit electric shock device used to urge on a horse during a race.


washy

en-adj

washy (comparative washier, superlative washiest)

washier (comparative)
washiest (superlative)

a washy horse

(US, dialect, archaic or horse racing) Not firm or hardy; liable to sweat profusely with labour.


compound

en-verb

compound (third-person singular simple present compounds, present participle compounding, simple past and past participle compounded)

compounds (present singular third-person)
compounding (participle present)
compounded (participle past)
compounded (past)

From Middle English compounen, from Middle French componre, compondre (“to put together”), from Latin componō, from Latin com- (“together”) + ponō (“to put”).

At the hill, the Warrior must have been at least ten lengths in front of Wild Dayrell; but he compounded about 200 yards on the T. Y. C. side of the Red House.

1855, The Sporting Review, volume 34, page 240:

(horse racing, intransitive) Of a horse: to fail to maintain speed.


rick

From Middle English *rykke, from Old English hrycce (“rick, heap, pile”), cognate with Scots ruk (“rick”), Norwegian ruka (“rick, haystack”). Related also to Old English hrēac (“rick, stack”), from Proto-Germanic *hraukaz (“heap”). Further relations: Dutch rook, Norwegian rauk, Swedish rök, Icelandic hraukur.

There is a remnant still of last year's golden clusters of beehive ricks, rising at intervals beyond the hedgerows;[…].

1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 53, in Adam Bede […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

Straw, hay etc. stored in a stack for winter fodder, commonly protected with thatch.


rick

rick (third-person singular simple present ricks, present participle ricking, simple past and past participle ricked)

ricks (present singular third-person)
ricking (participle present)
ricked (participle past)
ricked (past)

From earlier wrick, from Middle English wricken, wrikken (“to move back and forth”), probably from Middle Dutch *verwricken or Middle Low German vorwricken. Cognate with West Frisian wrikke, wrikje, Dutch wrikken, Low German wricken, German wricken, Danish vrikke, Swedish vricka.

(transitive, dialectal) To pierce with a hook by means of a sudden jerk or pull.


rick

(dialectal) A sharp or sudden move; a jerk or tug.


rick

No turning back now rick, you are the property of the US government now.

(military, derogatory and demeaning) A brand new (naive) boot camp inductee.


winker

From wink (“blinking of only one eye”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

silmäniskijä

[T]his Censurer slaundereth manie men, another might say of him, he is the cōmon packhorse of the Papistes, to carrie any fardell of lyes deuised against any Christian man or booke that commeth in his way, and the rather because he weareth a paire of winkers ouer his eyes like a milhorse, being ashamed to shewe either his face or his name.

1583, William Fulke, “A Briefe Confutation of Sundry Cavils and Quarels, Uttered by Diuerse Papistes in Their Seuerall Bookes & Pamphlets against the Writings of William Fulke”, in A Defense of the Sincere and True Translations of the Holie Scriptures into the English Tong against the Manifolde Cauils, Friuolous Quarels, and Impudent Slaunders of Gregorie Martin, […], London: […] Henrie Bynneman, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-06-24, page 32:

Take the winkers off that donkey's face, and let him get a bit to eat; there's grass enough, God knows, and it's good grass.

1914, James Stephens, chapter I, in The Demi-Gods, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, book I (Patsy Mac Cann), page 4:

The collar of his cambric shirt, English fashion, is highly starched and looks like winkers, its points projecting upward in front with a wide gap between.

1964, Aleksandr Pushkin, translated by Vladimir Nabokov, Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse […], volumes 2 (Commentary on Preliminaries and Chapters One to Five), New York, N.Y.: Bollingen Foundation, →OCLC, page 168:

A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks.

(equestrianism, also attributive and figurative) Chiefly in the plural: synonym of blinker (“a shield attached to the bridle of a horse or other domesticated animal to prevent it from seeing things behind it and to its side”)


equitation

en-noun

equitation (usually uncountable, plural equitations)

The art, practice or act of horseriding.

езда

the art, practice or act of riding a horse


chute

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-chute.wav

(horse racing) An extension to a straightway on either the home stretch or the backstretch, to avoid having a turn at the start of the race.


hornbeam

c. 1570, from Old English horn + beam (“tree”)

A tree of the genus Carpinus, having a smooth gray bark and a ridged trunk, the wood being white and very hard, common along the banks of streams in the United States.


larch

From early modern German Larche, Lärche, from Middle High German larche, from Old High German larihha, early borrowing from Latin larix, itself possibly of Gaulish origin. In the first century AD, Vitruvius wrote that the tree was given the Latin name "larigna" when the Romans discovered it at the town of Larignum.

The Larch-tree, with us, groweth slowly, and to be found in few places; it hath a rugged bark, and boughts that branch in good order, with divers small yellowish bunched eminences, set thereon at several distances, from whence tufts of many small, long, and narrow smooth leaves do yearly come forth; it beareth among the green leaves many beautiful flowers, which are of a fine crimson colour […]

1665, John Rea, Flora, London: J.G. Marriott, Book III, Chapter 20, pp. 235-236:

1716, Nicholas Rowe (translator), The Ninth Book of Lucan in John Dryden, Miscellany Poems, London: Jacob Tonson, Volume 6, p. 67,
The Gummy Larch-Tree, and the Thapsos there,
Wound-wort and Maiden-weed, perfume the Air.

Thus the Birch Canoe was builded
In the valley, by the river,
In the bosom of the forest;
And the forest’s life was in it,
All its mystery and its magic,
All the lightness of the birch-tree,
All the toughness of the cedar,
All the larch’s supple sinews;

1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha, Book 7:

Joan was thinking: ‘She looks like a tree […] it must be the green dress. But her eyes are like water, all greeny and shadowy and deep looking—a tree near a pool, that’s what she’s like, a tall tree. A beech tree? No, that’s too spready—a larch tree, that’s Elizabeth; a larch tree just greening over.'

1924, Radclyffe Hall, The Unlit Lamp, Chapter 5, Part 1:

During the early 1980s to early 1990s, and especially in the long drought period of 1982-3, extensive fires swept through natural forests in many parts of the world. While the ravaging fires in Australia and Europe received wide media coverage, 1 million hectares of larch forests were wiped out on the Ta-hsing-an-ling mountain in north-eastern China (H. Tagawa, personal communication).

1993, Nengah Wirawan, “The Hazard of Fire”, in Harold Brookfield, Yvonne Byron, editors, South-East Asia's Environmental Future: The Search for Sustainability, United Nations University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 242:

(countable) A coniferous tree, of genus Larix, having deciduous leaves, in fascicles.

ҫемҫе чӑрӑш

śemś̬e č̬ărăš


overreach

en-verb

overreach (third-person singular simple present overreaches, present participle overreaching, simple past and past participle overreached or (obsolete) overraught)

overreaches (present singular third-person)
overreaching (participle present)
overreached (participle past)
overreached (past)
overraught (obsolete participle past)
overraught (obsolete past)

/ˌəʊvəˈɹiːt͡ʃ/

/ˌoʊvə(ɹ)ˈɹit͡ʃ/

The verb is from Middle English overrechen (“to rise above; to extend beyond or over; to encroach; to catch, overtake; to reach; to obtain wrongfully (?); to take up (a book) to revise it”) [and other forms], equivalent to over- + reach; the noun is derived from the verb or from the phrase to reach over.

nb...

overreche, overreiche, (Northern England) overreke

أَنَافَ

to reach above or beyond, especially to an excessive degree

Attinto, [...] Alſo when a horſe is tainted or hurt, or ouerreacheth one foote with another, and withal doth hurt a ſinew.

1598, John Florio, “Attinto”, in A Worlde of Words, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield for Edw[ard] Blount, →OCLC, page 32, column 3:

Defective or bad form will predispose a horse to overreach. Bad shoeing will also be liable to cause the hind-foot to catch the forward one.

1864, John Nicholson Navin, “Vices of the Horse”, in Navin’s Veterinary Practice: Or Explanatory Horse Doctor. […], Indianapolis, Ind.: Published for the author; stereotyped at the Franklin Type Foundry, […], →OCLC, division I, page 287:

(transitive, intransitive, reflexive, equestrianism) Of a horse: to strike the heel of a forefoot with the toe of a hindfoot.


overreach

en-noun

overreach (countable and uncountable, plural overreaches)

/ˈəʊvə(ˌ)ɹiːt͡ʃ/

/ˈoʊvə(ɹ)ˌɹit͡ʃ/

The hunter's [i.e., hunting horse's] legs should be washed with warm water, carefully examined for thorns, overreaches, &c., and the legs should be rubbed dry, and well hand rubbed, by which means a free circulation of the blood will be promoted.

1833 April, “Teaching the Horse to Leap”, in T. B. Johnson, editor, The Sportsman’s Cabinet, and Town and Country Magazine, volume I, number 6, London: Published by Sherwood, Gilbert, & Piper, […], →OCLC, page 424:

Overreach.—This unpleasant noise, known also by the terms ‘clicking’, ‘overreach’, &c., arises from the toe of the hind foot knocking against the shoe of the fore foot.

1833 October, “Art. LXVI.—The Vices, and Disagreeable or Dangerous Habits of the Horse. [From the Library of Useful Knowledge.]”, in John D. Legare, editor, The Southern Agriculturist, and Register of Rural Affairs; […], volume VI, number 10, Charleston, S.C.: Printed and published for the editor, by A. E. Miller, […], →OCLC, part II (Selections), page 547:

(equestrianism) Of a horse: an act of striking the heel of a forefoot with the toe of a hindfoot; an injury caused by this action.


unsound

en-adj

unsound (comparative more unsound or unsounder, superlative most unsound or unsoundest)

more unsound (comparative)
unsounder (comparative)
most unsound (superlative)
unsoundest (superlative)

... A horse labouring under a temporary injury, capable of being speedily cured, is not unsound within the meaning of a warranty of soundness ...

1822, Sir John Comyns, Anthony Hammond, A Digest of the Laws of England:

(especially of equestrianism) Infirm, diseased.


route

From Middle English route, from Old French route, from Latin [rupta] via (literally “a path made by force”). Compare Modern French route.

der

(horse racing) A race longer than one mile.


ringer

Some senses may derive from ring the changes (“run through variations; enliven; pass counterfeit money; trick a shopkeeper into giving too much change”).

(horse racing) A horse fraudulently entered in a race using the name of another horse.


teak

en-noun

teak (usually uncountable, plural teaks)

Derived from Portuguese teca, from Malayalam തേക്ക് (tēkkŭ) / Tamil தேக்கு (tēkku).

(countable) A tree of the species in the genus Tectona.


rosewood

rosewood (countable and uncountable, plural rosewoods)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-rosewood.wav

A compound of rose + wood, originally so named because of the rose-scented aromatic oil derived from it; applied in later senses on account of these woods’ predominantly reddish-brown colour.

палисандр

any of many woods that resemble Dalbergia nigra

India rosewood

Dahlbergia latifolia, Acaccia melanoxylon, Dalbergia sissoo

The fragrant wood of Dalbergia nigra, a Brazilian tree in the legume family, which has a sweet smell.

Any of several dozen woods, resembling that of Dalbergia nigra in some respect.

The wood of a South American tree, Aniba rosaeodora, in the laurel family, with fragrant wood from which an essential oil is distilled.

Pterocarpus indicus
Pterocarpus indicus#Translingual

Wood and plant of Pterocarpus spp., for example African rosewood or mukula or Burmese rosewood (Pterocarpus indicus, syn. Pterocarpus santalinus).


hood

From Middle English hood, hod, from Old English hōd, from Proto-Germanic *hōdaz (cognate with Saterland Frisian Houd, West Frisian/Dutch hoed, German Low German Hood, German Hut). Cognate with Proto-Iranian *xawdaH (“hat”) (compare Avestan 𐬑𐬂𐬛𐬀 (xåda), Old Persian 𐎧𐎢𐎭 (x-u-d /xaudā/)), from Proto-Indo-European *kadʰ- (“to cover”). More at hat.

kapuç

covering for the head attached to a larger garment such as a jacket or cloak

A covering for the head, usually attached to a larger garment such as a jacket or cloak.

(equestrianism) A head and neck covering placed on horses to protect against insects and sunlight, to slow coat growth and for warmth.


trotter

From Middle English trottere, equivalent to trot + -er.

The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58:

In harness racing, a horse with a gait in which the front and back legs on opposite sides take a step together alternating with the other set of opposite legs; as opposed to a pacer.


equestrian

en-adj

equestrian (comparative more equestrian, superlative most equestrian)

more equestrian (comparative)
most equestrian (superlative)

Ultimately from Latin equester (“of or pertaining to equestrians/cavalry”) + -ianus (“-ian, related to”, adjective marker), from equus (“horse”).

der

They were an equestrian people.

After his death an equestrian statue was erected.

The society of colonial Spanish-America was one of the most equestrian in all history, and, to a very great extent, its existence depended on the adaptability of the Old World horse to New World conditions.

1973, Alfred W. Crosby, The Columbian Exchange, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 82:

Of horseback riding or horseback riders.

(historical) Of or relating to the ancient Roman class of equites.


equestrian

конник

an equestrian person; one who rides on horseback


gnarly

en-adj

gnarly (comparative gnarlier, superlative gnarliest)

gnarlier (comparative)
gnarliest (superlative)

From gnarl (“knot in wood”) + -y. The slang senses were particularly popularized by US surf culture in the 1970s.

Out of one window I can see the garden, those mysterious deep-shaded arbors, the riotous old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees.

1892 January, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wall Paper, Boston, Mass.: Small, Maynard & Company, published 1901, →OCLC, page 13:

Having or characterized by gnarls; gnarled.

a gnarly problem

When the swell struck, the North Shore got gnarly, and the wise ones hit the outer islands where the energy was just as juicy but a bit more organized.

Work that makes you unhappy is what I mean by "a gnarly problem." The trouble is, the market pays for solutions to gnarly problems, not solutions to easy problems. As the Yorkshire lads say, "Where there's muck, there's brass."

2008, [Avram] Joel Spolsky, More Joel on Software: Further Thoughts on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters that will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those who, whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity, Berkeley, Calif.: Apress, →ISBN, page 152:

We're not talking about a lame chick and a gnarly guy. We're talking about a couple of far-out dudes.

1981, Dan Jenkins, Baja Oklahoma, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books, ISBN 978-0-689-11173-0; reprinted New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, 1982, ISBN 978-0-671-45163-9, page 269

Funky Kong: 'Those Snowmads are a gnarly bunch! I hear they're enjoyin' your island. Go get 'em, DK!'

2014 February, Retro Studios, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Nintendo, level/area: Funky's Fly 'n' Buy:

[She] displays the same love of gnarly fuzztones and shout-it-out-loud choruses that began back in her daze^([sic]) with local all-girl rockers the Runaways.

(slang, US) Unpleasant, awful, ugly.
(slang, US) Of music or a sound: harsh.

Unpleasant, awful, ugly.
Of music or a sound: harsh.


fault

From Middle English faute, faulte, from Anglo-Norman faute, Old French faute, from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“shortcoming”), feminine of *fallitus, in place of Latin falsus, perfect passive participle of fallō (“deceive”). Displaced native Middle English schuld, schuild (“fault”) (from Old English scyld (“fault”)), Middle English lac (“fault, lack”) (from Middle Dutch lak (“lack, fault”)), Middle English last (“fault, vice”) (from Old Norse lǫstr (“fault, vice, crime”)). Compare French faute (“fault, foul”), Portuguese falta (“lack, shortage”) and Spanish falta (“lack, absence”). More at fail, false.

cog

If the horse refuses an obstacle, the rider will receive four faults.

(equestrianism) A penalty point assessed in horseback events such as show jumping.


bumper

Dutch: bumper

Japanese: バンパー (banpā)

Korean: 범퍼 (beompeo)

Russian: ба́мпер (bámper)

(horse racing) In National Hunt racing, a flat race for horses that have not yet competed either in flat racing or over obstacles.


fence

en-verb

fence (third-person singular simple present fences, present participle fencing, simple past and past participle fenced)

fences (present singular third-person)
fencing (participle present)
fenced (participle past)
fenced (past)

From Middle English fence, fens, short for defence, defens (“the act of defending”), from Old French defens, defense (see defence).
The sense "enclosure" arises in the mid 15th century.
Also from the 15th century is use as a verb in the sense "to enclose with a fence". The generalized sense "to defend, screen, protect" arises ca. 1500. The sense "to fight with swords (rapiers)" is from the 1590s (Shakespeare).
Displaced native Old English heġe (compare Modern English hedge).

(intransitive, equestrianism) To jump over a fence.


maga

Thespesia grandiflora, a tree native to Puerto Rico also planted elsewhere for its fairness and the working properties of its wood.


vault

Borrowed from Middle French volter (“to turn or spin around; to frolic”), borrowed from Italian voltare, itself from a Vulgar Latin frequentative form of Latin volvere; later assimilated to Etymology 1, above.

bor

(equestrianism) Synonym of volte: a circular movement by the horse.


closer

From Middle English closere, equivalent to close (verb) + -er.

(horse racing) A horse that performs best toward the end of a race.


Grand National

The premier steeplechase (horse race over fences) in the United Kingdom


steeplechase

Compound of steeple + chase, from horse races in 18th century Ireland in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple.

(chiefly British, equestrianism) A horse race, either across open country, or over an obstacle course.


souped-up

en-adj

souped-up (comparative more souped-up, superlative most souped-up)

more souped-up (comparative)
most souped-up (superlative)

Uncertain; the fact that the earlier senses seem to be the horse racing cant and United States Navy slang ones suggests a derivation from soup (“liquid food item”), connoting a horse or a person being filled with a liquid.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a modified clipping of supe(r), with reference to an aeroplane or automobile engine being supercharged: see, for example, the 1925 quotation. This sense appears to post-date the horse-racing and navy slang senses.

(horse racing, cant) Of a racehorse: injected with a substance to make it run faster or to change its temperament.

napumpan

of a racehorse: injected with a substance to make it run faster


impost

Borrowed from Middle French impost, itself borrowed or adapted from Latin impōsitus, past participle of impōnō (“I impose”).

(horse racing, slang) The weight that must be carried by a horse in a race; the handicap.


puissance

en-noun

puissance (countable and uncountable, plural puissances)

From Middle English puissaunce, from Anglo-Norman puissance, pusaunce, and other forms, from Old French puissant (“powerful”).

It was in Dublin that San Lucas scored his first success in what has become something of a speciality for him, the puissance.

1969, G. H. S. Webber, Show Jumping International, London: Evans Brothers; New York, N.Y.: Van Nostrand Reinhold, →OCLC, page 126:

Pat [Moss] then went to Oxford to qualify for the Horse of the Year Show, and Danny was fourth in the Puissance, an event with very high jumps.

2011 April, Stuart Turner, Harnessing Horsepower: The Pat Moss Carlsson Story, Poundbury, Dorset: Veloce Publishing, →ISBN, page 23:

In a study of horses during a puissance competition that started at a height of 1.80 m and ended in the last round at 2.27 m, success was significantly positively correlated with the following variables at lift-off: vertical velocity of CM, height of CM, distance of CM from the fence; and was significantly negatively correlated with the distance of the leading hind limb to the CM.

2013, Hilary M. Clayton, P. René van Weeren, “Performance in Equestrian Sports”, in Willem Back, Hilary M. Clayton, editors, Equine Locomotion, 2nd edition, Edinburgh, New York, N.Y.: Saunders, →ISBN, page 332:

(equestrianism) The high-jump component of the sport of show jumping.


bridle

From Middle English bridel, from Old English brīdel, from Proto-West Germanic *brigdil, from Proto-Germanic *brigdilaz (“strap, rein”), equivalent to braid + -le.

inh

[…] the horseman, who is the user of bridles and knows their use

1961, J. A. Philip, “Mimesis in the Sophistês”, in Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association, 92, p. 457:

(equestrianism) The headgear with which a horse is directed and which carries a bit and reins.


firewood

en-noun

firewood (countable and uncountable, plural firewoods)

desc

Chinese Pidgin English: firewood, 快也𭉉 (Chinese spelling)

From Middle English ferwode, fyrewoode, equivalent to fire + wood.

After many days of hard work, we finally had enough firewood for the winter.

Wood intended to be burned, typically for heat.

アベチクニ

wood intended to be burned, typically for heat


resurrectionist

From resurrection (“the act of rising from the dead and becoming alive again”) + -ist (“forms agents of cause; forms adherents of a belief”), coined alongside resurrection man.

af

There is a class of horses called ‘resurrectionists’... and they either recover early form... or... become animated, when they were supposed to be gone altogether, with... life and vigour.

(equestrianism, humorous, obsolete) A racehorse that (once or numerously) suddenly recovers its stamina midrace.


under the wire

Lying forward flattened along Sunfish's hard-muscled shoulders, Bud was gaining and gaining—one length, then two lengths as he shot under the wire, slowed and rode back to find a silent crowd watching him.

1921, B. M. Bower, chapter 15, in Cow-Country:


cedar

en-noun

cedar (countable and uncountable, plural cedars)

Cedar Beach
Cedar Bluff
Cedar Bluffs
Cedar City
Cedar Crest
Cedar Falls
Cedar Fire
Cedar Forest
Cedar Fort
Cedar Glen Lakes
Cedar Glen West
Cedar Grove
Cedar Hill
Cedar Hill Lakes
Cedar Hills
Cedar Island
Cedar Key
Cedar Lake
Cedar Mill
Cedar Mills
Cedar Mountain
Cedar Park
Cedar Revolution
Cedar River
Cedar Springs
Cedar Township
Cedar Vale
Cedar Valley
cedar

From Middle English cedre, probably from Old French cedre, from Latin cedrus, from Ancient Greek κέδρος (kédros).
Some suggest that the Middle English word was partially from Old English ċeder, but the gap in attestation between the two words makes this proposal unlikely.

(uncountable) The aromatic wood from a Cedrus tree, or from any of several not closely related trees.


pedal

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pedal (noun, verb).wav

Borrowed from French pédale, Latin pedāl(is). By surface analysis, ped- + -al.


ashen

en-adj

ashen (comparative more ashen, superlative most ashen)

more ashen (comparative)
most ashen (superlative)

From Middle English asshen, axen (“ash-colored; pale; lifeless”), equivalent to ash + -en (“made or consisting of”).

His ashen face belied his claims of good health.

пе́пельно-се́рый (pépelʹno-séryj, literally “ash-grey”)


serpentine

From Middle English serpentine, from Old French serpentin, from Latin serpentīnus, from serpēns (“serpent”), equivalent to serpent + -ine.

(equestrianism) In dressage, a winding walk across on the arena.


napoleon

en-noun

napoleon (countable and uncountable, plural napoleons)

/nəˈpəʊlɪən/

Borrowed from French Napoléon (“given name, usually in reference to Napoleon Bonaparte”). In reference to coins, via French napoléon (“(slang) a coin that originally had the appearance of Napoleon's face in the obverse”). In reference to guns and possibly cards, in reference to Napoleon III.

bor

(rare UK horse racing slang, obsolete) Alternative form of nap: a horse to go nap on, a sure thing, a certain winner; a prediction of such a horse; a bet on such a horse.


pillion

From Scottish Gaelic pillean (“little rug”), from Latin pellis (“animal skin, pelt”).

Riding behind the driving rider, as when positioned on the rump of a mount.


off side

en-noun

off side (countable and uncountable, plural off sides)

(equestrianism) The right-hand side of a horse.


dressage

dressage (countable and uncountable, plural dressages)

Borrowed from French dressage (“training”).

(uncountable) An equestrian sport in which the horse and rider perform a test of specific movements in an arena, and are judged on the horse's obedience, acceptance of the bridle and of the rider's aids, gaits, impulsion, and the harmony between horse and rider.

I'm competing in two dressages and a jumping show this weekend.

(countable) An event or competition of the sport of dressage.


stalker

From Middle English stalkere, equivalent to stalk + -er.

2024, Jack Adler, Horse Racing: An Opinion: A New Way of Seeing the Sport of Kings
If the class of the field is a stalker, I'm all in in terms of evaluating his chances.

(horse racing) A horse that tends to stay just behind the leaders in a race.


racecourse

By Savernake the train was 4½min early; we then had the thrill of sweeping through Newbury at 95 m.p.h.—and one wonders if any of the punters on the neighbouring racecourse had any eyes for our flying cavalcade as we swept by, for it was a race day—[...].

1964 June, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 387:

(British, Australia) A racetrack where horse races are run.

хиподрум

(UK) a racetrack where horse races are run


tic-tac

(British) a system of sign language used by bookmakers at racecourses to communicate odds and bets; an associated group of words for each sign


steamer

From steam + -er. The steamer duck or steamer (sense 6.2) is apparently named for its resemblance to a paddle steamer when swimming rapidly.

(horse racing) A racehorse the odds of which are becoming shorter (that is, decreasing) because bettors are backing it.


softwood

softwood (countable and uncountable, plural softwoods)

The bodies are sheeted in softwood, a double layer of ⅝-in. boards on the quarters, with a single thickness lining inside the steel ends.

1952 January, “British Railways Standard Wagons”, in Railway Magazine, page 61:

(uncountable, chiefly botany) The wood from any gymnosperm, without regard to how soft this wood is.

(countable, in more general use) Wood of this kind, but limited to those that are commercial timbers.

SYP is a softwood, but it is harder than many hardwoods.

This softwood has been planted extensively throughout Scotland.

(countable, forestry) The tree or tree species that yields this wood.

You should have used softwood for the frame of this shed, instead of overbuilding it like this.


schooling

schooling (countable and uncountable, plural schoolings)

(dressage) The training of a horse at dressage.


sticks

It was a maiden race over the "sticks," and the trainer's instructions were to slip off and make the running throughout.

1902, Outing: Sport, Adventure, Travel, Fiction, volume 40, page 469:

Do they prefer flat or 'over the sticks' (jump races)? Does the group know what the races with jumps are called?

2009, Anni Bowden, Nancy Lewthwaite, The Activity Year Book, page 124:

(horse racing) Hurdles or other obstacles to be jumped over.


nanmu

wood of the tree Phoebe nanmu (or several other similar) that was once used for boat building, architectural woodworking and wood art in China


welter-weight

Originally “heavyweight horseman” (1832), from welter (“heavyweight horseman”) + weight. Boxing sense 1896.

compound

(horse racing) A weight of 28 pounds (or 40 pounds: a heavy welterweight), sometimes imposed in addition to weight for age, chiefly in steeplechases and hurdle races.


sophomore

From earlier sophumer, from the obsolete sophom, sophum (“sophism or dialectical exercise”), from Ancient Greek σόφισμα (sóphisma). Likely influenced by Ancient Greek σοφός (sophós, “wise”) + μωρός (mōrós, “fool”). Compare oxymoron (literally “sharp-dull”), a similar contradiction.

The filly had looked promising as a sophomore, but concerns over her health had prompted the owner to pull her from the season’s early races.

(US, horse-racing) A three-year-old horse.


gymkhana

→ Catalan: gimcana

→ Italian: gincana

→ Portuguese: gincana

→ Spanish: yincana

/d͡ʒɪmˈkɑnə/

From Hindustani گیند خانہ (gendxānā) / गेंदख़ाना (gendxānā, “racquet court”), from گیند / गेंद (gend, “ball”) + خانہ / ख़ाना (xānā, “court”). Influenced by gymnastics and gymnasium.

In the afternoon the British held athletic sports, an impromptu military tournament, and a gymkhana, all of which caused much merriment and diversion, and the Boers profited by the cessation of the shell fire to shovel away at their trenches.

1900, Winston Churchill, chapter 13, in London to Ladysmith via Pretoria:

(equestrianism) A competition where riders and horses display a range of skills and aptitudes.


paddock

The noun is almost certainly a variant of dialectal British parrock (“enclosure; park; croft, small field, paddock”), from Middle English parrok, parrock (“enclosed pasture, paddock; coop; feeding stall; cabin, hut”) [and other forms], from Old English pearroc, pearruc (“fence used to enclose a space; area enclosed by such a fence, enclosure”), from Proto-West Germanic *parruk (“enclosure; pen for animals”), from Proto-Germanic *parrukaz (“fence; enclosure”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *barō (“bar, beam; barrier”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce; to strike”). Doublet of park.
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* Danish park (“pond”)
* Dutch perk (“flowerbed; garden; pen”)
* German Pferch (“sheepfold, sheep-pen”)

cog

We left the carriage, bought programmes, and walked across the infield and then across the smooth thick turf of the course to the paddock. […] The paddock was fairly well filled with people and they were walking the horses around in a ring under the trees behind the grand stand.

1929 May–October, Ernest Hemingway, chapter 20, in A Farewell to Arms, 1st British edition, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1929, →OCLC, book II, page 138:

You remind me of a two-year-old, Dinny—one of those whipcordy chestnuts that kick up their heels in the paddock, get left at the post, and come in first after all.

1931 November, John Galsworthy, chapter XXIV, in Maid in Waiting, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: The Ryerson Press, published 1931, →OCLC, page 211:

(horse racing) An enclosure next to a racecourse where horses are paraded and mounted before a race and unsaddled after a race.


mahogany

en-noun

mahogany (countable and uncountable, plural mahoganies)

→ German: Mahagoni

A word of unknown origin concocted in either English or Middle Dutch from one or more exotic phytonyms and common European words.

bastard mahogany

Eucalyptus botryoides or Matayba apetala

Brazilian mahogany

Cariniana legalis; Plathymenia foliolosa, Plathymenia reticulata

A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away[…].

1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

(uncountable) The valuable wood of any of various tropical American evergreen trees, of the genus Swietenia, mostly used to make furniture.

(countable) Any of the trees from which such wood comes.


mahogany

en-adj

mahogany (comparative more mahogany, superlative most mahogany)

more mahogany (comparative)
most mahogany (superlative)


redwood

Pinus sylvestris
Pinus sylvestris#Translingual

(uncountable, British, obsolete) Wood of the species Pinus sylvestris.


hickory

en-noun

hickory (countable and uncountable, plural hickories)

A shortening of pockerchicory/pokickery/pohickery, from Powhatan pawcohiccora.

[H]e came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot
And the devil jumped up on a hickory stump
And said, "Boy, let me tell you what."

1979, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, in Charlie Daniels, Tom Crain, "Taz" DiGregorio, Fred Edwards, Charles Hayward, James W. Marshall (lyrics), Million Mile Reflections, performed by The Charlie Daniels Band:

(countable) Any of various deciduous hardwood trees of the genera Carya and Annamocarya, one species of which, Carya illinoinensis, is the source of pecan nuts.


sandalwood

sandalwood (countable and uncountable, plural sandalwoods)

From sandal + wood, the first component being from Middle English sandal (“sandalwood”), from Medieval Latin sandalum, from Byzantine Greek σάνδανον (sándanon), σάνταλον (sántalon), from Arabic صَنْدَل (ṣandal), from Middle Persian [script needed] (cndl /čandal/, “sandalwood”), from Sanskrit चन्दन (candana, “sandalwood”).

der

Any of various tropical trees of the genus Santalum, native or long naturalized in India, Australia, Hawaii, and many south Pacific islands.

صَنْدَل

any of various tropical trees of the genus Santalum

صَنْدَل

the aromatic heartwood of the trees of the genus Santalum


poplar

en-noun

poplar (countable and uncountable, plural poplars)

From Middle English popler, from Anglo-Norman popler and Old French poplier (compare French peuplier), from Latin pōpulus, with a suffix later added.

American poplar

Populus tremuloides; Liriodendron tulipifera

balsam poplar

Populus balsamifera; Populus sect. Tacamahaca

They are gathered under the low-hanging branches of a poplar, its gold and green leaves glittering on the breeze like tinsel.

2020, Paul Mendez, Rainbow Milk, Dialogue Books (2021), page 285:

Any of various deciduous trees of the genus Populus.

аӷш

any of various deciduous trees of the genus Populus


off like a bride's nightie

en-adj

off like a bride's nightie (not comparable)

A reference to the supposed eagerness of just-married couples to have sexual intercourse on the night of their wedding. Australian from 1960.

(Australia, slang, simile) Making a rapid departure; away.

(Australia, horse racing) Moving quickly and resolutely.

Making a rapid departure; away.
Moving quickly and resolutely.


cocus wood

The wood from the tree, used for making flutes and other musical instruments


jockey

The word is by origin a diminutive of jock, the Northern English or Scots colloquial equivalent of the first name John, which is also used generically for "boy" or "fellow" (compare Jack, Dick), at least since 1529. A familiar instance of the use of the word as a name is in "Jockey of Norfolk" in Shakespeare's Richard III. v. 3, 304. Equivalent to jock + -ey.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was applied to horse-dealers, postilions, itinerant minstrels and vagabonds, and thus frequently bore the meaning of a cunning trickster, a "sharp", whence the verb to jockey, "to outwit" or "to do" a person out of something. The current meaning of a person who rides a horse in races was first seen in 1670.

And the crime for which Nuncomar was about to die was regarded by them in much the same light in which the selling of an unsound horse, for a sound price, is regarded by a Yorkshire jockey.

1841, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Warren Hastings:

(dated) A dealer in horses; a horse trader.


equestrienne

Were she but the daring equestrienne jumping through the flaming hoops, little it would matter to her if her gauzy skirts did catch.

1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 185:


hippodrome

/ˈhɪpəˌdɹəʊm/

Borrowed from French hippodrome, from Latin hippodromos, from Ancient Greek ἱππόδρομος (hippódromos), from ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) + δρόμος (drómos, “course”). By surface analysis, hippo- + -drome.


yearling

From Middle English yerling, yerlyng, equivalent to year + -ling. Cognate with Dutch jaarling (“yearling”), German Jährling (“yearling”).

"But is a plebe forbidden to stroll here?"
"If a plebe did have the brass to try it," replied Anstey slowly, "I reckon he would have to fight the whole yearling class in turn."

1910, H. Irving Hancock, Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point, page 84:

As a yearling, he admitted to doing his part in ensuring that plebes knew their place at the Academy, […]

2014, Michael E. Haskew, West Point 1915 (page 57)

(US) A sophomore at West Point military academy.


bull ring

(US, horse racing) An unusually short track, typically six furlongs or less for one lap.


rodeo

/ˈɹəʊ.di.əʊ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-rodeo.wav

From Spanish rodeo, from rodear (“to surround”), which refers to a cattle roundup.

(sports) A North American sport involving skills with horses, cows and other livestock.


curb bit

(equestrianism) A type of bit used on a bridle, which works by leverage and has shanks and a curb chain.


double bridle

(equestrianism) A Weymouth bridle, which uses both a bradoon, held by a sliphead, and a curb bit, and is used with two reins.


pull up

en-verb

pull up (third-person singular simple present pulls up, present participle pulling up, simple past and past participle pulled up)

pulls up (present singular third-person)
pulling up (participle present)
pulled up (participle past)
pulled up (past)

In this May 20, 2006, Barbaro is steadied[sic, "by" is missing] a track worker as jockey Edgar Prado looks on after he pulled up the horse with a fractured right rear leg during the 131st running of the Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

2016 May 19, Paul Vigna, “Barbaro's ill-fated run 10 years ago in the Preakness: A look back”, in PennLive:

(transitive, horse racing) To intentionally take a racehorse out of a race, usually as a result of the horse's tiredness or concerns of potential injury (in reference to the act of pulling up the reins).


shoo-in

From a sense of the verb shoo, where racehorses would fall back and allow a chosen rider to win a fixed race. See 1910 quotation.

Little Pete was a member of the delegation that were in on the "shoo" in the third race. He had several commissioners placing his coin on Model. If the race was to have been a "shoo-in" for Model, there must have been one or two owners that were not in on the deal.

1895, “Pointers from the Paddock”, in The San Francisco Call:

Most of the "regulars" are deeply suspicious of all steeplechase races of late years, and, whenever the favorite falls at one of the obstacles and a long priced leaper wins the race, they loudly call the race a "shoo-in" (a fixed affair, that is, in which the steeplechase racers have arranged to drop to the rear of the "meant" jumper and "shoo" him to the wire, they previously, of course, having got their money down on the horse thus generously treated).

1910, “Vernacular of the Race Track”, in New-York Tribune:

[it was] wondered whether Chris Chenery's Virginia flyer would be a shoo-in for the Belmont Stakes […]

(horse racing) The winner of a fixed race, a fixed race.


take the field

take the field (third-person singular simple present takes the field, present participle taking the field, simple past took the field, past participle taken the field)

takes the field (present singular third-person)
taking the field (participle present)
took the field (past)
taken the field (participle past)

(horse racing) To stake one's money against the favourite, taking the chances of the field against the chance of one horse.


driftwood

en-noun

driftwood (usually uncountable, plural driftwoods)

Every wave on the Atlantic was like a dead seagull dragging its driftwood artillery from horizon to horizon.

1967, Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America:

A floating piece, or pieces, of wood that drifts with the current of a body of water.


quinella

From American Spanish quiniela (“sporting bet or pool”); US from 1942.

bor

1954, Michigan Department of State Compilation Commission, 1954 Michigan Administrative Code, page 38,
All tickets on the quinella will be calculated in an entirely separate pool.

A few tracks offer exactas and quinallas on the same races.

1989, Charles S. Romanelli, How to Make Money in One Day at the Track, page 166:

The track quinella paid $38.00 for a $2 wager, the track exacta paid $70.60 for a $2 wager.

2004, Jim Kilby, Jim Fox, Anthony F. Lucas, Casino Operations Management, page 355:

(gambling, horse racing) A form of bet in which the bettor predicts the first two finishers in a race, without concern for the order of finishing.


drawmaster

(horse racing) The person who determines the post positions for races.


horsemanship

en-noun

horsemanship (usually uncountable, plural horsemanships)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-horsemanship.wav

The retired cowboy showed off his horsemanship by doing tricks in the saddle.

The skill of horseriding, and sometimes of training and managing horses.


dark horse

Originally an allusion to an unknown horse with a dark coat winning a race, as used in the 1831 novel The Young Duke by Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881).

(horse racing) A horse whose capabilities are not known.