See shanks' mare in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for shanks' mare meaning in English (4.3kB)
{
"etymology_text": "The expression -- believed to be Scottish in origin -- derives from shanks' nag (shanks-naig 1774), referring to the use of shank to refer to the part of the human leg between the knee and ankle. One theory cites \"shank's mare\" derived from a horse-drawn lawn mower, manufactured by Shanks & Company Ltd. (founded 1853) which required that the human operator walk behind the device to guide the horse; however, references to the phrase in Scottish literature pre-date the existence of the Shanks lawn mower.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "shanks' mares",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "~",
"head": "shanks' mare"
},
"expansion": "shanks' mare (countable and uncountable, plural shanks' mares)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "American English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1923, Harris Dickson, “The Proof”, in The Red Book Magazine, volume 41, number 6",
"text": "“Well! Well! Here's Aunt Cannie. Waiting for your car?”\n“No suh, Mr. Henry. Shank's mare is plenty good fer me. I been ridin' dis ol' mare for more'n a hund'ed years.”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1942. Transit Journal, McGraw Hill, page 173http://books.google.com/books?id=7GcTAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Shanks'+mare%22&dq=%22Shanks'+mare%22&lr=&ei=4plgR9OWE5KetAOy0sGDBw&pgis=1",
"text": "Once they take to Shanks' mare, they are all equal."
},
{
"ref": "1869. The Dubuque Daily Herald, Dubuque, Iowa, May 1869",
"text": "A public exhibition of the velocipede [a predecessor of the bicycle] ... will never come into general use in competition with Shank's mare."
},
{
"ref": "2003. John O'Flaherty, Rafferty, p. 77http://books.google.com/books?id=ZD0F4lbP9EIC&pg=PA77&dq=%22shanks%27+mare%22&lr=&ei=aJpgR-zhHo2msgOt3cHzBg&sig=J03Vw4E0LOtgDggPIwMke5IlAyY",
"text": "The last thing we'd want to be seen doing...is using shanks mare, even though the day is holding up well."
}
],
"glosses": [
"One's own legs used for walking; to \"travel by shanks' mare\" or \"ride [on] shanks' mare\" is to walk to your destination."
],
"id": "en-shanks'_mare-en-noun-JQMr0b5N",
"links": [
[
"legs",
"legs"
],
[
"walking",
"walking"
],
[
"travel",
"travel"
],
[
"ride",
"ride"
],
[
"walk",
"walk"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(US, idiomatic) One's own legs used for walking; to \"travel by shanks' mare\" or \"ride [on] shanks' mare\" is to walk to your destination."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "shanks' nag"
},
{
"word": "shanks-nag"
},
{
"tags": [
"Scottish"
],
"word": "and variants"
},
{
"tags": [
"Australian",
"UK"
],
"word": "shanks' pony and variants"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "shanks's mare"
},
{
"word": "shank's mare"
},
{
"word": "shanks mare"
}
],
"tags": [
"US",
"countable",
"idiomatic",
"uncountable"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "十一路"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "walking",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "Schusters Rappen"
},
{
"code": "is",
"english": "to ride on shanks' mare",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "fara á tveimur jafnfljótum"
},
{
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "ganga"
},
{
"code": "ga",
"english": "to go on shanks' mare",
"lang": "Irish",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "é a chrágáil"
},
{
"code": "ga",
"lang": "Irish",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "dul ann de shiúl cos"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "walking",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "piechota"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"english": "on shanks' mare",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "na svoíx dvoíx",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "на свои́х двои́х"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "na Peškáruse",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "на Пешка́русе"
},
{
"code": "sco",
"lang": "Scots",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "shank's meir"
},
{
"code": "sco",
"lang": "Scots",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "Tamson's meir"
},
{
"code": "es",
"english": "Castilla",
"lang": "Spanish",
"note": "ir en el coche de San Fernando, un ratito a pie y otro caminando",
"sense": "walking",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "walking",
"tags": [
"plural"
],
"word": "apostlahästar"
}
]
}
],
"word": "shanks' mare"
}
{
"etymology_text": "The expression -- believed to be Scottish in origin -- derives from shanks' nag (shanks-naig 1774), referring to the use of shank to refer to the part of the human leg between the knee and ankle. One theory cites \"shank's mare\" derived from a horse-drawn lawn mower, manufactured by Shanks & Company Ltd. (founded 1853) which required that the human operator walk behind the device to guide the horse; however, references to the phrase in Scottish literature pre-date the existence of the Shanks lawn mower.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "shanks' mares",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "~",
"head": "shanks' mare"
},
"expansion": "shanks' mare (countable and uncountable, plural shanks' mares)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "shanks' nag"
},
{
"word": "shanks-nag"
},
{
"tags": [
"Scottish"
],
"word": "and variants"
},
{
"tags": [
"Australian",
"UK"
],
"word": "shanks' pony and variants"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"American English",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with quotations",
"English uncountable nouns"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1923, Harris Dickson, “The Proof”, in The Red Book Magazine, volume 41, number 6",
"text": "“Well! Well! Here's Aunt Cannie. Waiting for your car?”\n“No suh, Mr. Henry. Shank's mare is plenty good fer me. I been ridin' dis ol' mare for more'n a hund'ed years.”",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1942. Transit Journal, McGraw Hill, page 173http://books.google.com/books?id=7GcTAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Shanks'+mare%22&dq=%22Shanks'+mare%22&lr=&ei=4plgR9OWE5KetAOy0sGDBw&pgis=1",
"text": "Once they take to Shanks' mare, they are all equal."
},
{
"ref": "1869. The Dubuque Daily Herald, Dubuque, Iowa, May 1869",
"text": "A public exhibition of the velocipede [a predecessor of the bicycle] ... will never come into general use in competition with Shank's mare."
},
{
"ref": "2003. John O'Flaherty, Rafferty, p. 77http://books.google.com/books?id=ZD0F4lbP9EIC&pg=PA77&dq=%22shanks%27+mare%22&lr=&ei=aJpgR-zhHo2msgOt3cHzBg&sig=J03Vw4E0LOtgDggPIwMke5IlAyY",
"text": "The last thing we'd want to be seen doing...is using shanks mare, even though the day is holding up well."
}
],
"glosses": [
"One's own legs used for walking; to \"travel by shanks' mare\" or \"ride [on] shanks' mare\" is to walk to your destination."
],
"links": [
[
"legs",
"legs"
],
[
"walking",
"walking"
],
[
"travel",
"travel"
],
[
"ride",
"ride"
],
[
"walk",
"walk"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(US, idiomatic) One's own legs used for walking; to \"travel by shanks' mare\" or \"ride [on] shanks' mare\" is to walk to your destination."
],
"tags": [
"US",
"countable",
"idiomatic",
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "shanks's mare"
},
{
"word": "shank's mare"
},
{
"word": "shanks mare"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "十一路"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "walking",
"tags": [
"masculine",
"plural"
],
"word": "Schusters Rappen"
},
{
"code": "is",
"english": "to ride on shanks' mare",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "fara á tveimur jafnfljótum"
},
{
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "ganga"
},
{
"code": "ga",
"english": "to go on shanks' mare",
"lang": "Irish",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "é a chrágáil"
},
{
"code": "ga",
"lang": "Irish",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "dul ann de shiúl cos"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "walking",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "piechota"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"english": "on shanks' mare",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "na svoíx dvoíx",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "на свои́х двои́х"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "na Peškáruse",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "на Пешка́русе"
},
{
"code": "sco",
"lang": "Scots",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "shank's meir"
},
{
"code": "sco",
"lang": "Scots",
"sense": "walking",
"word": "Tamson's meir"
},
{
"code": "es",
"english": "Castilla",
"lang": "Spanish",
"note": "ir en el coche de San Fernando, un ratito a pie y otro caminando",
"sense": "walking",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "walking",
"tags": [
"plural"
],
"word": "apostlahästar"
}
],
"word": "shanks' mare"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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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