river horse

American  

noun

1. a hippopotamus.

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river horse British  

noun

1. an informal name for the hippopotamus

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Etymology

Origin of river horse

First recorded in 1595–1605

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

river horse

Then, sitting down, aware of the pleasant viridian background in Francesco’s painting, my eyes blur: I feel like I am falling asleep: then, the river horse, my Magnifico, appears inside the pigment.

From Voices from the Past by Paul Alexander Bartlett

I should not be surprised to see him some day put out the head of a river horse; or come forth a pewitt, or lapwing, some feathered metamorphosis.

From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb

This he had already done, and he had exchanged a river horse, worth twenty dollars, for a terrestrial horse, worth twenty piastres.

From The Nile tributaries of Abyssinia, and the sword hunters of the Hamran arabs by Sir Samuel White Baker

It is out of the idolatrous dotings of the old Egyptians upon broiled ibis and roasted river horse, that you see the mummies of those creatures in their huge bakehouses the pyramids.

From Moby Dick: or, the White Whale by Herman Melville

We should not be surprised to see him some day put out the head of a river horse; or come forth a pewit, or lapwing, some feathered metamorphosis.

From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 Elia and The Last Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb