rocking horse

American  

noun

rocking horses plural

1. a toy horse, as of wood, mounted on rockers or springs, on which children may ride; hobbyhorse.

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rocking horse British  

noun

1. a toy horse mounted on a pair of rockers on which a child can rock to and fro in a seesaw movement

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• rocking horses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of rocking horse

First recorded in 1795–1805

Example Sentences

Set against the distant Blue Ridge Mountains, it depicts a favorite Southern activity—akin to her widely admired maple-sugaring paintings set up north—embellished with details like the tiny rocking horse on her front porch.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026

The cubist-inspired sculpture — half toy rocking horse head, half toy dinosaur head — is alive in more ways than one.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2025

She stacks up miniature versions of banal furnishings — a chair, a sofa, a rocking horse — glued one on top of the other.

From New York Times • Jun. 1, 2023

"His first Christmas present was a rocking horse, for his second I got him a pony, and he's never looked back."

From BBC • Jan. 27, 2023

She herself would not have minded having a rocking horse, but a rocking horse was not a good gift for a baby who could not yet sit up in the saddle.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood