unhorse
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cause to fall from a horse, as in battle; dislodge from the saddle.
Sir Gawain unhorsed the strange knight.
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to defeat; overcome; dislodge, as from a position or office.
His vigorous campaign unhorsed his adversary.
verb
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(usually passive) to knock or throw from a horse
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to overthrow or dislodge, as from a powerful position
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rare to unharness horses from (a carriage, etc)
Etymology
Origin of unhorse
First recorded in 1350–1400, unhorse is from the Middle English word unhorsen. See un- 2, horse
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Unseating Bush was daunting, as it is to unhorse any incumbent president.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 23, 2019
Even so, Johnson may prove no easier to unhorse in 1968 than Harry Truman was 20 years earlier when threatened by an overconfident G.O.P.
From Time Magazine Archive
Neither was overly eager for the tougher assignment of trying to unhorse Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen, 72.
From Time Magazine Archive
The odds stood at about 3 to 1 that the urban aristocrat, Meighen, cannot politically, unhorse Countryman King, who has "broken in" many a horse of flesh and blood in his day.
From Time Magazine Archive
The officer wished evidently to unhorse his opponent with a thrust; but Volodyovski, interposing the hilt of his sabre, described a half-circle like lightning, and the rapier flew away.
From The Deluge, Vol. I. (of 2) An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia. by Sienkiewicz, Henryk
This came after the outgoing speaker had already been unhorsed for his own ethical failings.
From Fox News ● Feb. 6, 2019
This is a group dedicated to rehabilitating the reputation of a king they say was much maligned by Shakespeare and supporters of Henry Tudor, who killed Richard after he was unhorsed in battle.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 22, 2015
The French king was himself unhorsed by this method, and only saved by his bodyguard.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2014
They unhorsed knights who then lay helplessly on the ground in their heavy armor.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2012
If I had unhorsed Rhaegar and crowned Ashara queen of love and beauty, might she have looked to me instead of Stark?
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
So, consider how the unhorsing of Cantor may strike some other Republicans.
From Washington Post
Slim Jim Carey, now the C.I.O.'s secretary-treasurer, knew that he had not the slimmest chance of unhorsing the top trio, but he carried his fight to the floor.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the fall of 1946 they headed a veterans' group that came within a lance-tip of unhorsing the political boss, Judge Cy Bond.
From Time Magazine Archive
There was even talk of unhorsing Old Guardsman Watson as Republican Leader and putting Senator McNary into his place.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet he acquitted himself well, unhorsing Horas Redwyne in his first joust and one of the Freys in his second.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
