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

He threw coils of the rope about the short legs of the "river horse" and down went the hippopotamus with a thud.

From Joe Strong, the Boy Fish or Marvelous Doings in a Big Tank by Barnum, Vance

The river horse couches there among the bulrushes, and on a great granite throne sits the God Memnon.

From Oscar Wilde A Critical Study by Ransome, Arthur

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 Baker, Samuel White, Sir

He read it, and in an instant the great battle, hills, river, horse, rider, shrieks, groans, all vanished from his mind as silently as a puff of white smoke from a distant cannon.

From The Choir Invisible by Allen, James Lane

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 Lamb, Charles