1
: drawn or operated by one horse
2
: small, small-time
… the only way a lot of kids stuck in one-horse towns know that they can find life-changing fame and fortune is on the stage.Neely Tucker

Examples of one-horse in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Each table is decorated with a snowman candle holder to drive the theme home on a one-horse open sleigh. Fritz Hahn, Washington Post, 6 Dec. 2023 The contest was effectively a one-horse race, with Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), a political behemoth with a vast war chest, facing no viable opponent after a ruthless, years-long crackdown on its rivals. Reuters, CNN, 23 July 2023 Unfortunately, a ruling from a one-horse federal courtroom in Texas reminds us that there’s almost an endless supply of those litigants and the judges who run with them. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'one-horse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1734, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of one-horse was in 1734

Dictionary Entries Near one-horse

Cite this Entry

“One-horse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/one-horse. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

one-horse

adjective
: small and unimportant
a one-horse town

More from Merriam-Webster on one-horse

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