horse sense

American  

noun

1. common sense.

---

horse sense British  

noun

1. another term for common sense

---

horse sense Idioms  

1. Sound practical sense, as in She's got too much horse sense to believe his story. The exact allusion in this term, which dates from the mid-1800s, is disputed, since some regard horses as rather stupid. However, they tended to be viewed more positively in the American West, where the term originated.

---

Etymology

Origin of horse sense

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

Example Sentences

One might say they figured it just made good horse sense.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2020

More likely, it was something in American Pharoah’s horse sense that told him the man in the suit was a weak specimen.

From Washington Post • Sep. 16, 2019

“One of the all-time great horses in this era,” said Sherman, whose horse sense comes hard-earned.

From New York Times • Nov. 3, 2016

Independent women with choices stand as a factual refutation to the watery stew of evolutionary psychology, macho posturing, and LAN party horse sense that these groups subsist on.

From The Guardian • May 14, 2015

The estimates provide a good example of how numerical horse sense can check pseudoscientific ravings.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos