horsepower
[hawrs-pou-er]
- a foot-pound-second unit of power, equivalent to 550 foot-pounds per second, or 745.7 watts.
- Informal. the capacity to achieve or produce; strength or talent: The university's history faculty is noted for its intellectual horsepower.
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Origin of horsepower
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for horsepower
Contemporary Examples
In the race to the future, horsepower was losing to gas power, and the city was changing.
They used a 30 horsepower refrigeration unit to keep the wall frozen and spent about $15 a day to power it.
It cruises at 43 miles per hour and has about a 10 horsepower engine, no larger than the Wright brothers' original vessel.
In the end, though, it usually comes down to an irresistible urge to combine a love of feet with a love of horsepower, says Block.
Historical Examples
The motor is a double-cylinder two-cycle one, of ten horsepower.
Tom Swift and his Motor-boatVictor Appleton
And I will measure the energy I use in terms of sun-powers, not horsepower.
Invaders from the InfiniteJohn Wood Campbell
In fact, nothing but a machine of horsepower could have accomplished that.
The Desert HomeMayne Reid
Geilsgrefte, horsepower, was best exerted by a horse, he thought.
Blind Man's LanternAllen Kim Lang
But let us take five horsepower as a desirable minimum in this instance.
Electricity for the farmFrederick Irving Anderson
horsepower
- an fps unit of power, equal to 550 foot-pounds per second (equivalent to 745.7 watts)
- a US standard unit of power, equal to 746 watts
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Abbreviation: HP, h.p
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for horsepower
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
horsepower
[hôrs′pou′ər]
- A unit that is used to measure the power of engines and motors. One unit of horsepower is equal to the power needed to lift 550 pounds one foot in one second. This unit has been widely replaced by the watt in scientific usage; one horsepower is equal to 745.7 watts.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
horsepower
Note
The horsepower is used to measure the power of engines.
Note
This term was coined by James Watt, who invented a new type of steam engine in the eighteenth century. Watt found that the horse could do a certain amount of work per second; when he sold his steam engines, this measurement allowed him to estimate the worth of an engine in terms of the number of horses it would replace. Therefore, a six-horsepower engine was capable of replacing six horses.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.