horseshoe
Americannoun
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horseshoes
plural
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a U -shaped metal plate, plain or with calks, nailed to a horse's hoof to protect it from being injured by hard or rough surfaces.
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something U -shaped, as a valley, river bend, or other natural feature.
We picnicked in the middle of a horseshoe of trees.
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(used with a singular verb) horseshoes, a game in which horseshoes or other U -shaped pieces of metal, plastic, etc., are tossed at an iron stake 30 or 40 feet (9 or 12 meters) away in order to encircle it or to come closer to it than one's opponent.
verb (used with object)
adjective
noun
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a piece of iron shaped like a U with the ends curving inwards that is nailed to the underside of the hoof of a horse to protect the soft part of the foot from hard surfaces: commonly thought to be a token of good luck
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an object of similar shape
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of horseshoe
Explanation
When you think of a horseshoe, don't picture a shoe with a sole and laces! Instead, a horseshoe is an arc-shaped piece of metal that gets nailed into the horse's hoof. Ever since humans started using horses for riding, pulling carts, and working on farms, they've found ways to guard their hooves against wear and injury. Horseshoes can be nailed onto the thick, fingernail-like hoof, or glued on. Some people consider horseshoes to be lucky symbols as well, while others enjoy the game called horseshoes, which involves throwing large horseshoes toward a metal stake in the ground.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I can already imagine it: point your phone at a package of ground beef and wait while a tiny animated horseshoe spins on the screen.
From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026
Bill Hays—taut, with a neatly trimmed gray horseshoe hairline—sat behind the counter and immediately clocked me as a journalist, not some casual shopper.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
The work was made possible by the first laboratory-grown lung cell line developed from the greater horseshoe bat.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 24, 2026
He learned his birth mother was buried in a pauper’s grave at the Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Santa Rosa, with “nothing to mark her grave but an upside-down horseshoe that has her name in it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
‘Us haven’t had anything since Saturday. Us have just been enjoying our horseshoe game.’
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
One invented the mechanical reaper, another a machine for the mass production of horseshoes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
Beyoncé's rodeo rumbled into London, bringing with it every country cliché you could think of - cowboy hats, horseshoes, tassels and even a gold mechanical bull.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2025
At Alisal Ranch in Solvang, kids can hang out at the bar and paint horseshoes or take a riding lesson.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2025
In addition to horse skulls and skeletons, the team found horseshoes.
From NewsForKids.net ● Feb. 19, 2024
The cotton gin meant bigger cotton yields and the iron tools to harvest it, iron horseshoes for the horses tugging the wagons with iron rims and parts that took it to market.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
But will it be as intimidating as the cauldron created by the almost 5,000-seat stand that horseshoed the first tee at Rome in 2023?
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2025
In both cases, he has accidentally horseshoed himself into spectacularly ill-informed opinions that nonetheless capture something of the contemporary zeitgeist.
From Salon ● Dec. 29, 2024
At the Masters, he horseshoed short putts to miss the cut while Tiger Woods ground out a limping resurgence on his surgically repaired leg.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 22, 2023
During the final round of the SAS Championship, Parnevik missed a short bogey putt that horseshoed around the hole and ultimately hit his foot.
From Golf Digest ● Oct. 15, 2019
The three-times European Ryder Cup member missed the chance for a “mulligan” — golf terminology for a free shot — when his short bogey putt horseshoed around the hole and hit his foot.
From Reuters ● Oct. 13, 2019
She was driving on Highway 530, headed to a horseshoeing appointment, when the slide hit.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 17, 2024
That’s out of this world, but Casey passes up the opportunity to salvage the half, his putt horseshoeing out.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 25, 2021
“There is being in running shape and there is being in horseshoeing shape,” she said.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 20, 2015
While Deborah was pregnant we lived in South Carolina so that I could go to horseshoeing school and then back to Atlanta for the birth.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2013
Her husband saved up his horseshoeing money and bought her freedom right after they were married.
From "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
