"horse pill" meaning in English

See horse pill in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-horse pill.ogg [Australia] Forms: horse pills [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} horse pill (plural horse pills)
  1. (idiomatic, sometimes mildly humorous) A medicinal pill which is very large in size and is therefore difficult for a person to swallow. Tags: humorous, idiomatic, mildly, sometimes Categories (topical): Pharmacy
    Sense id: en-horse_pill-en-noun-Byzu3adQ Disambiguation of Pharmacy: 46 34 21
  2. (idiomatic, by extension) A fact, proposal, claim, etc. that is difficult to accept or believe. Tags: broadly, idiomatic Synonyms (fact, proposal, claim, etc that is difficult to accept or believe): hard pill to swallow Related terms (outlandish drugs for humans): horse tranquilizer
    Sense id: en-horse_pill-en-noun-LIhCo-ll Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 9 86 6 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 10 79 11 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 12 78 10 Disambiguation of 'fact, proposal, claim, etc that is difficult to accept or believe': 5 95 1 Disambiguation of 'outlandish drugs for humans': 26 41 32
  3. (animal husbandry) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see horse, pill: a pill for horses, sometimes a large one.
    Sense id: en-horse_pill-en-noun-vYA2yXz9

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for horse pill meaning in English (4.7kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "horse pills",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "horse pill (plural horse pills)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "46 34 21",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Pharmacy",
          "orig": "en:Pharmacy",
          "parents": [
            "Medicine",
            "Pharmacology",
            "Biology",
            "Sciences",
            "Biochemistry",
            "All topics",
            "Chemistry",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002 June 26, “CNN.com - Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Vitamins and Alzheimer's”, in CNN, retrieved 2013-11-25",
          "text": "I'm lucky enough to remember to take my horse pill, much less drop it into a glass and wait 45 minutes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 December 31, Becky Jungbauer, “Vitamin Supplements: Fact Or Folklore?”, in Science 2.0, retrieved 2013-11-25",
          "text": "I do know that I feel better when I remember to take my multivitamin, iron and vitamin D supplements, and the occasional fish oil horse pill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A medicinal pill which is very large in size and is therefore difficult for a person to swallow."
      ],
      "id": "en-horse_pill-en-noun-Byzu3adQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "medicinal",
          "medicinal"
        ],
        [
          "difficult",
          "difficult"
        ],
        [
          "swallow",
          "swallow"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, sometimes mildly humorous) A medicinal pill which is very large in size and is therefore difficult for a person to swallow."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "idiomatic",
        "mildly",
        "sometimes"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "9 86 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
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          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "10 79 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "12 78 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1967 August 26, Harry Schwartz, “Answer To Soviet Shift: China”, in St. Petersburg Times, retrieved 2013-11-25, page 8A",
          "text": "Even pro-Soviet Communists will find the Geneva accord a difficult horse pill to swallow.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1984 August 4, “Reagan will pledge to preserve tax cut, sources say”, in The News and Courier, retrieved 2013-11-25, page 8A",
          "text": "Mac Carey, an aide to leading tax-cut crusaders in Congress, called the draft language in Reagan's radio speech \"a horse pill. It's very difficult to swallow.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 June 20, Michael Cooper, “New York City Budget: The Deal”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-11-25",
          "text": "Officials know that if this year's budget is a bitter pill to swallow, next year's will be a bitter horse pill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 November 30, Guy Junker, “Junker: Panthers need to get over it”, in triblive.com, retrieved 2013-11-25",
          "text": "They need to swallow that big horse pill that is the West Virginia loss, forget about it and re-focus this week.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A fact, proposal, claim, etc. that is difficult to accept or believe."
      ],
      "id": "en-horse_pill-en-noun-LIhCo-ll",
      "links": [
        [
          "fact",
          "fact"
        ],
        [
          "proposal",
          "proposal"
        ],
        [
          "claim",
          "claim"
        ],
        [
          "accept",
          "accept"
        ],
        [
          "believe",
          "believe"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, by extension) A fact, proposal, claim, etc. that is difficult to accept or believe."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "26 41 32",
          "sense": "outlandish drugs for humans",
          "word": "horse tranquilizer"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "5 95 1",
          "sense": "fact, proposal, claim, etc that is difficult to accept or believe",
          "word": "hard pill to swallow"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see horse, pill: a pill for horses, sometimes a large one."
      ],
      "id": "en-horse_pill-en-noun-vYA2yXz9",
      "links": [
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          "animal husbandry",
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          "horse",
          "horse#English"
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        [
          "pill",
          "pill#English"
        ],
        [
          "pill",
          "pill"
        ],
        [
          "horse",
          "horse"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "animal husbandry",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(animal husbandry) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see horse, pill: a pill for horses, sometimes a large one."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-horse pill.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1c/En-au-horse_pill.ogg/En-au-horse_pill.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/En-au-horse_pill.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "horse pill"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "en:Pharmacy"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "horse pills",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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      "expansion": "horse pill (plural horse pills)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "sense": "outlandish drugs for humans",
      "word": "horse tranquilizer"
    }
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  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        "English humorous terms",
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002 June 26, “CNN.com - Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Vitamins and Alzheimer's”, in CNN, retrieved 2013-11-25",
          "text": "I'm lucky enough to remember to take my horse pill, much less drop it into a glass and wait 45 minutes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 December 31, Becky Jungbauer, “Vitamin Supplements: Fact Or Folklore?”, in Science 2.0, retrieved 2013-11-25",
          "text": "I do know that I feel better when I remember to take my multivitamin, iron and vitamin D supplements, and the occasional fish oil horse pill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A medicinal pill which is very large in size and is therefore difficult for a person to swallow."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "humorous",
          "humorous"
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        [
          "medicinal",
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        [
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        ],
        [
          "swallow",
          "swallow"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, sometimes mildly humorous) A medicinal pill which is very large in size and is therefore difficult for a person to swallow."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "idiomatic",
        "mildly",
        "sometimes"
      ]
    },
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      "categories": [
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1967 August 26, Harry Schwartz, “Answer To Soviet Shift: China”, in St. Petersburg Times, retrieved 2013-11-25, page 8A",
          "text": "Even pro-Soviet Communists will find the Geneva accord a difficult horse pill to swallow.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1984 August 4, “Reagan will pledge to preserve tax cut, sources say”, in The News and Courier, retrieved 2013-11-25, page 8A",
          "text": "Mac Carey, an aide to leading tax-cut crusaders in Congress, called the draft language in Reagan's radio speech \"a horse pill. It's very difficult to swallow.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 June 20, Michael Cooper, “New York City Budget: The Deal”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-11-25",
          "text": "Officials know that if this year's budget is a bitter pill to swallow, next year's will be a bitter horse pill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 November 30, Guy Junker, “Junker: Panthers need to get over it”, in triblive.com, retrieved 2013-11-25",
          "text": "They need to swallow that big horse pill that is the West Virginia loss, forget about it and re-focus this week.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A fact, proposal, claim, etc. that is difficult to accept or believe."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "fact",
          "fact"
        ],
        [
          "proposal",
          "proposal"
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        [
          "accept",
          "accept"
        ],
        [
          "believe",
          "believe"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, by extension) A fact, proposal, claim, etc. that is difficult to accept or believe."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see horse, pill: a pill for horses, sometimes a large one."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "animal husbandry",
          "animal husbandry"
        ],
        [
          "horse",
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        ],
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          "pill",
          "pill#English"
        ],
        [
          "pill",
          "pill"
        ],
        [
          "horse",
          "horse"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "animal husbandry",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(animal husbandry) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see horse, pill: a pill for horses, sometimes a large one."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-horse pill.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1c/En-au-horse_pill.ogg/En-au-horse_pill.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/En-au-horse_pill.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "fact, proposal, claim, etc that is difficult to accept or believe",
      "word": "hard pill to swallow"
    }
  ],
  "word": "horse pill"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.