"horse's doovers" meaning in English

See horse's doovers in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: Fanciful corruption of hors d'oeuvres. Apparently British/Australian prison or POW slang. Head templates: {{en-noun|p|head=horse's doovers}} horse's doovers pl (plural only)
  1. (UK, Australia, humorous, slang) hors d'oeuvres Tags: Australia, UK, humorous, plural, plural-only, slang Categories (topical): Foods

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Fanciful corruption of hors d'oeuvres. Apparently British/Australian prison or POW slang.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p",
        "head": "horse's doovers"
      },
      "expansion": "horse's doovers pl (plural only)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Australian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
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          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Foods",
          "orig": "en:Foods",
          "parents": [
            "Eating",
            "Food and drink",
            "Human behaviour",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1962, William Morris, Mary Morris, Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins:",
          "text": "None of us is likely to stray so far from the correct pronunciation as the legendary new-rich oil millionaire who demanded “horses′ doovers”...",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1973, John O'Grady, Survival in the Doghouse, page 86:",
          "text": "On a couple of our little occasional tables - we′ve got three - they′ve got horse′s doovers set out. Things on cracker biscuits.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "1982, George MacDonald Fraser, 1993, HarperCollins, page 290,\n“How! We eat now, together. Horse′s doovers and large snow puddings that make the tongue dead. Joll-ee good!”"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum:",
          "text": "...everyone throws their hats in the air and shouts “hoorah!” and then it′s all over bar the drinks and horses′ doovers and findin′ your own hat.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Gene McDougall, My Letters to David Letterman, Texas: Virtualbookworm.com, page 38:",
          "text": "As we were all sampling the horse′s doovers, one of the guests, evidently thirsting for a deep philosophical discussion, asked me for my views on the meaning of life.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "2009, Glenn Ickler, A Deadly Vineyard, StirlingHouse Publisher, Pennsylvania, page 109,\n“ […] He wants us there by 6:30 for cocktails and, as he said it, horse′s doovers.”"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
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      "id": "en-horse's_doovers-en-noun-kgY~beBq",
      "links": [
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        ],
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          "hors d'oeuvre",
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  ],
  "word": "horse's doovers"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Fanciful corruption of hors d'oeuvres. Apparently British/Australian prison or POW slang.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p",
        "head": "horse's doovers"
      },
      "expansion": "horse's doovers pl (plural only)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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        "Pages with 1 entry",
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Foods"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1962, William Morris, Mary Morris, Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins:",
          "text": "None of us is likely to stray so far from the correct pronunciation as the legendary new-rich oil millionaire who demanded “horses′ doovers”...",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1973, John O'Grady, Survival in the Doghouse, page 86:",
          "text": "On a couple of our little occasional tables - we′ve got three - they′ve got horse′s doovers set out. Things on cracker biscuits.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "1982, George MacDonald Fraser, 1993, HarperCollins, page 290,\n“How! We eat now, together. Horse′s doovers and large snow puddings that make the tongue dead. Joll-ee good!”"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum:",
          "text": "...everyone throws their hats in the air and shouts “hoorah!” and then it′s all over bar the drinks and horses′ doovers and findin′ your own hat.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Gene McDougall, My Letters to David Letterman, Texas: Virtualbookworm.com, page 38:",
          "text": "As we were all sampling the horse′s doovers, one of the guests, evidently thirsting for a deep philosophical discussion, asked me for my views on the meaning of life.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "2009, Glenn Ickler, A Deadly Vineyard, StirlingHouse Publisher, Pennsylvania, page 109,\n“ […] He wants us there by 6:30 for cocktails and, as he said it, horse′s doovers.”"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
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      ],
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        ],
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, Australia, humorous, slang) hors d'oeuvres"
      ],
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        "UK",
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        "plural",
        "plural-only",
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      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "horse's doovers"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (eaedd02 and 8fbd9e8). 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.

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