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Iron horse   /ˈaɪərn hɔrs/   Listen
noun
Horse  n.  
1.
(Zool.) A hoofed quadruped of the genus Equus; especially, the domestic horse (Equus caballus), which was domesticated in Egypt and Asia at a very early period. It has six broad molars, on each side of each jaw, with six incisors, and two canine teeth, both above and below. The mares usually have the canine teeth rudimentary or wanting. The horse differs from the true asses, in having a long, flowing mane, and the tail bushy to the base. Unlike the asses it has callosities, or chestnuts, on all its legs. The horse excels in strength, speed, docility, courage, and nobleness of character, and is used for drawing, carrying, bearing a rider, and like purposes. Note: Many varieties, differing in form, size, color, gait, speed, etc., are known, but all are believed to have been derived from the same original species. It is supposed to have been a native of the plains of Central Asia, but the wild species from which it was derived is not certainly known. The feral horses of America are domestic horses that have run wild; and it is probably true that most of those of Asia have a similar origin. Some of the true wild Asiatic horses do, however, approach the domestic horse in several characteristics. Several species of fossil (Equus) are known from the later Tertiary formations of Europe and America. The fossil species of other genera of the family Equidae are also often called horses, in general sense.
2.
The male of the genus Equus, in distinction from the female or male; usually, a castrated male.
3.
Mounted soldiery; cavalry; used without the plural termination; as, a regiment of horse; distinguished from foot. "The armies were appointed, consisting of twenty-five thousand horse and foot."
4.
A frame with legs, used to support something; as, a clotheshorse, a sawhorse, etc.
5.
A frame of timber, shaped like a horse, on which soldiers were made to ride for punishment.
6.
Anything, actual or figurative, on which one rides as on a horse; a hobby.
7.
(Mining) A mass of earthy matter, or rock of the same character as the wall rock, occurring in the course of a vein, as of coal or ore; hence, to take horse said of a vein is to divide into branches for a distance.
8.
(Naut.)
(a)
See Footrope, a.
(b)
A breastband for a leadsman.
(c)
An iron bar for a sheet traveler to slide upon.
(d)
A jackstay.
9.
(Student Slang)
(a)
A translation or other illegitimate aid in study or examination; called also trot, pony, Dobbin.
(b)
Horseplay; tomfoolery.
10.
Heroin. (slang)
11.
Horsepower. (Colloq. contraction) Note: Horse is much used adjectively and in composition to signify of, or having to do with, a horse or horses, like a horse, etc.; as, horse collar, horse dealer, horsehoe, horse jockey; and hence, often in the sense of strong, loud, coarse, etc.; as, horselaugh, horse nettle or horse-nettle, horseplay, horse ant, etc.
Black horse, Blood horse, etc. See under Black, etc.
Horse aloes, caballine aloes.
Horse ant (Zool.), a large ant (Formica rufa); called also horse emmet.
Horse artillery, that portion of the artillery in which the cannoneers are mounted, and which usually serves with the cavalry; flying artillery.
Horse balm (Bot.), a strong-scented labiate plant (Collinsonia Canadensis), having large leaves and yellowish flowers.
Horse bean (Bot.), a variety of the English or Windsor bean (Faba vulgaris), grown for feeding horses.
Horse boat, a boat for conveying horses and cattle, or a boat propelled by horses.
Horse bot. (Zool.) See Botfly, and Bots.
Horse box, a railroad car for transporting valuable horses, as hunters. (Eng.)
Horse breaker or Horse trainer, one employed in subduing or training horses for use.
Horse car.
(a)
A railroad car drawn by horses. See under Car.
(b)
A car fitted for transporting horses.
Horse cassia (Bot.), a leguminous plant (Cassia Javanica), bearing long pods, which contain a black, catharic pulp, much used in the East Indies as a horse medicine.
Horse cloth, a cloth to cover a horse.
Horse conch (Zool.), a large, spiral, marine shell of the genus Triton. See Triton.
Horse courser.
(a)
One that runs horses, or keeps horses for racing.
(b)
A dealer in horses. (Obs.)
Horse crab (Zool.), the Limulus; called also horsefoot, horsehoe crab, and king crab.
Horse crevallé (Zool.), the cavally.
Horse emmet (Zool.), the horse ant.
Horse finch (Zool.), the chaffinch. (Prov. Eng.)
Horse gentian (Bot.), fever root.
Horse iron (Naut.), a large calking iron.
Horse latitudes, a space in the North Atlantic famous for calms and baffling winds, being between the westerly winds of higher latitudes and the trade winds.
Horse mackrel. (Zool.)
(a)
The common tunny (Orcynus thunnus), found on the Atlantic coast of Europe and America, and in the Mediterranean.
(b)
The bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix).
(c)
The scad.
(d)
The name is locally applied to various other fishes, as the California hake, the black candlefish, the jurel, the bluefish, etc.
Horse marine (Naut.), an awkward, lubbery person; one of a mythical body of marine cavalry. (Slang)
Horse mussel (Zool.), a large, marine mussel (Modiola modiolus), found on the northern shores of Europe and America.
Horse nettle (Bot.), a coarse, prickly, American herb, the Solanum Carolinense.
Horse parsley. (Bot.) See Alexanders.
Horse purslain (Bot.), a coarse fleshy weed of tropical America (Trianthema monogymnum).
Horse race, a race by horses; a match of horses in running or trotting.
Horse racing, the practice of racing with horses.
Horse railroad, a railroad on which the cars are drawn by horses; in England, and sometimes in the United States, called a tramway.
Horse run (Civil Engin.), a device for drawing loaded wheelbarrows up an inclined plane by horse power.
Horse sense, strong common sense. (Colloq. U.S.)
Horse soldier, a cavalryman.
Horse sponge (Zool.), a large, coarse, commercial sponge (Spongia equina).
Horse stinger (Zool.), a large dragon fly. (Prov. Eng.)
Horse sugar (Bot.), a shrub of the southern part of the United States (Symplocos tinctoria), whose leaves are sweet, and good for fodder.
Horse tick (Zool.), a winged, dipterous insect (Hippobosca equina), which troubles horses by biting them, and sucking their blood; called also horsefly, horse louse, and forest fly.
Horse vetch (Bot.), a plant of the genus Hippocrepis (Hippocrepis comosa), cultivated for the beauty of its flowers; called also horsehoe vetch, from the peculiar shape of its pods.
Iron horse, a locomotive. (Colloq.)
Salt horse, the sailor's name for salt beef.
To look a gift horse in the mouth, to examine the mouth of a horse which has been received as a gift, in order to ascertain his age; hence, to accept favors in a critical and thankless spirit.
To take horse.
(a)
To set out on horseback.
(b)
To be covered, as a mare.
(c)
See definition 7 (above).


iron horse  n.  A locomotive; an term no longer used. (Obsolete)


adjective
Iron  adj.  
1.
Of, or made of iron; consisting of iron; as, an iron bar, dust.
2.
Resembling iron in color; as, iron blackness.
3.
Like iron in hardness, strength, impenetrability, power of endurance, insensibility, etc.; as:
(a)
Rude; hard; harsh; severe. "Iron years of wars and dangers." "Jove crushed the nations with an iron rod."
(b)
Firm; robust; enduring; as, an iron constitution.
(c)
Inflexible; unrelenting; as, an iron will.
(d)
Not to be broken; holding or binding fast; tenacious. "Him death's iron sleep oppressed." Note: Iron is often used in composition, denoting made of iron, relating to iron, of or with iron; producing iron, etc.; resembling iron, literally or figuratively, in some of its properties or characteristics; as, iron-shod, iron-sheathed, iron-fisted, iron-framed, iron-handed, iron-hearted, iron foundry or iron-foundry.
Iron age.
(a)
(Myth.) The age following the golden, silver, and bronze ages, and characterized by a general degeneration of talent and virtue, and of literary excellence. In Roman literature the Iron Age is commonly regarded as beginning after the taking of Rome by the Goths, A. D. 410.
(b)
(Archaeol.) That stage in the development of any people characterized by the use of iron implements in the place of the more cumbrous stone and bronze.
Iron cement, a cement for joints, composed of cast-iron borings or filings, sal ammoniac, etc.
Iron clay (Min.), a yellowish clay containing a large proportion of an ore of iron.
Iron cross, a German, and before that Prussian, order of military merit; also, the decoration of the order.
Iron crown, a golden crown set with jewels, belonging originally to the Lombard kings, and indicating the dominion of Italy. It was so called from containing a circle said to have been forged from one of the nails in the cross of Christ.
Iron flint (Min.), an opaque, flintlike, ferruginous variety of quartz.
Iron founder, a maker of iron castings.
Iron foundry, the place where iron castings are made.
Iron furnace, a furnace for reducing iron from the ore, or for melting iron for castings, etc.; a forge; a reverberatory; a bloomery.
Iron glance (Min.), hematite.
Iron hat, a headpiece of iron or steel, shaped like a hat with a broad brim, and used as armor during the Middle Ages.
Iron horse, a locomotive engine. (Colloq.)
Iron liquor, a solution of an iron salt, used as a mordant by dyers.
Iron man (Cotton Manuf.), a name for the self-acting spinning mule.
Iron mold or Iron mould, a yellow spot on cloth stained by rusty iron.
Iron ore (Min.), any native compound of iron from which the metal may be profitably extracted. The principal ores are magnetite, hematite, siderite, limonite, Göthite, turgite, and the bog and clay iron ores.
Iron pyrites (Min.), common pyrites, or pyrite. See Pyrites.
Iron sand, an iron ore in grains, usually the magnetic iron ore, formerly used to sand paper after writing.
Iron scale, the thin film which forms on the surface of wrought iron in the process of forging. It consists essentially of the magnetic oxide of iron, Fe3O4.
Iron works, a furnace where iron is smelted, or a forge, rolling mill, or foundry, where it is made into heavy work, such as shafting, rails, cannon, merchant bar, etc.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Iron horse" Quotes from Famous Books



... them the Arabian fable of Aladdin is realized.... Let the road be completed, and the comforts as well as the necessaries furnished by Asia, the manufactures of Europe, and the productions of the States can be brought by the iron horse almost to the miner's door; and in the production and possession of the precious metals, the blood of commerce, we shall be the richest nation on the globe. But the substantial wealth created by the improvement of the ...
— The United States in the Light of Prophecy • Uriah Smith
... gentleman is not complete until it includes one or two of these useless appendages. I had an argument with my host as to their value compared with that of the steam-engine, in which I forced him to admit that the iron horse is the better of the two, because it performs more work, eats less, has greater speed, and is not liable to the spavin or the heaves; but he wound up by saying, "After all, I go for the thorough-breds. You Yankees have but one test ...
— Among the Pines - or, South in Secession Time • James R. Gilmore
... thunder of the cannon—I regard the tall chimney, with its banner of black smoke, a far nobler sight than the fortress turret with its flouting and fickle flag. I hear sweet music in the plashing of the paddle-wheel; and in my ears a nobler sound is the scream of the iron horse than the neigh of the pampered war-steed. A nation of monkeys may manage the business of gunpowder: they must be men to control the more ...
— The Quadroon - Adventures in the Far West • Mayne Reid
... terminal point of a railway system which extended its track westward across the great American plains, over the virgin prairie, the native haunt of the buffalo and fleet-footed antelope, the iron horse trespassing on the hunting ground of the Arapahoe and Comanche Indian tribes. As a mercantile supply depot for New Mexico and Colorado, Junction City was the port from whence a numerous fleet of prairie schooners sailed, laden with the necessities and luxuries of an advancing civilization. But ...
— Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann
... Aristatalis, and some other ingenious counsellors, were requested to consult together to contrive some means of counteracting the power of the war-elephants, and they suggested the construction of an iron horse, and the figure of a rider also of iron, to be placed upon wheels like a carriage, and drawn by a number of horses. A soldier, clothed in iron armor, was to follow the vehicle—his hands and face besmeared with combustible matter, and this soldier, armed ...
— Persian Literature, Volume 1,Comprising The Shah Nameh, The - Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan • Anonymous
... years before Victoria and Albert had driven away—the same state, the same popular excitement, in kind if not in degree, and, let us trust, a like amount of love and joy. But this happy pair did not drive all the way to Windsor. The waiting train, the iron horse snorting with impatience, showed how the world had moved on since that other wedding; but the perennial Eton boys were on hand for these lovers also, wearing the same tall hats and short jackets, cheering in the same mad way, so that the Queen herself would hardly have suspected them ...
— Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood • Grace Greenwood
... produce prefers it, or rather is forced by the necessities of the case to employ it. And these necessities will continue to increase. With the aid of all the railroads now or to be constructed, the rapid expansion of Western commerce has distanced the facilities of transport. The iron horse, as has been well said, has always stimulated industry and production beyond his power to carry it. It was the forcible remark of the English traveler Sir Morton Peto that the American railroads ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 11, No. 24, March, 1873 • Various
... slipped by all too quickly, and it was soon time to bid farewell to Kalomo and its game-haunted flats, over which the iron horse now winds its prosaic course on its way to the dim, mysterious North, bringing noise and bustle in its train. In consequence the hunter and the animal-lover have to travel farther on, but there will always be room for all on ...
— South African Memories - Social, Warlike & Sporting From Diaries Written At The Time • Lady Sarah Wilson
... putting the unlucky tricycle in order. Jeffreys was not a mechanic. All he could do was to put the parts together in a makeshift way, and by straightening some of the bent parts and greasing some of the stiff parts restore the iron horse into a gloomy semblance of ...
— A Dog with a Bad Name • Talbot Baines Reed


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