Rosinante

American  

[roz-uh-nan-tee, roh-zuh-nahn-tee] / ˌrɒz əˈnæn ti, ˌroʊ zəˈnɑn ti /

noun

1. the old, worn horse of Don Quixote.

2. (lowercase) an old, decrepit horse.

---

Rosinante British  

/ ˌrɒzɪˈnæntɪ /

noun

1. a worn-out emaciated old horse

---

Etymology

Origin of Rosinante

C18: from Spanish, the name of Don Quixote's horse, from rocin old horse

Example Sentences

If ever a U.S. horse attains the immortality of Bellerophon's Pegasus or Don Quixote's Rosinante, surely it will be Samuel D. Riddle's Man o' War.

From Time Magazine Archive

In 1922 John Dos Passos published a book on Spain, Rosinante to the Road Again, followed it five years later with one on his travels in the Near East, Orient Express.

From Time Magazine Archive

This Don Quixote upon his sagging, sopping Rosinante was Josef Pilsudski, Marshal and Dictator of Poland, astride the 25-year-old mare on which he charged at the head of his Polish Legionnaires in 1914.

From Time Magazine Archive

With the primary sweepstakes but three months away, McGovern appears more a Rosinante than a viable dark horse.

From Time Magazine Archive

Coercion and relief were two reins in his skilled hands wherewith he sawed the mouth of poor rawboned Rosinante, till the harried animal came down upon its haunches.

From My Lords of Strogue, Vol. I (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Wingfield, Lewis