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Definition 2024


warhorse

warhorse

English

Noun

warhorse (plural warhorses)

  1. (historical) Any horse used in horse-cavalry, but especially one bearing an armored knight.
    • As he spoke, the knight-errant, who had remounted his warhorse, galloped forward to the royal stand, with a silken kerchief bound round his wounded arm. — Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, Chapter 26.
  2. (theater, music) A regularly revived theatrical or musical work, as with Hamlet or a Beethoven symphony, or as excerpts thereto. May imply that the work in question has become hackneyed.
    • 2006 Most important though is the fact that, for the first time in I can barely remember how long, the ROH mounts a new production of an Italian repertory warhorse that is fully on the level of the one it replaces [and indeed, in some respects, surpasses it] [...] we actually have a "Tosca".Google group.
  3. An experienced person who has been through many battles, situations or contests; someone who has given long service.
    • "Srinath: India's warhorse" (headline from BBC News)

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