war horse

1. A person or thing that has seen long service or has lived through many hardships and can be relied on: “That teacher is a real war horse; he has seen the dismissal of ten different principals.”

Idioms and Phrases

Also, old war horse. A dependable, frequently performed attraction, as in The opera company is doing nothing but old war horses this season, like, Aïda and La Bohème. This term originated in the mid-1600s for a military charger that had been through many battles. In the 1800s it began to be used for human veterans, and in the mid-1900s for popular productions, especially of musical works.

Example Sentences

On the set of the live-action movie, Toothless and the other dragons existed as large puppets with simple functions, operated by a team of master puppeteers led by Tom Wilton, a performer who had worked on the “War Horse” stage play.

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War Horse author Michael Morpurgo won the fiction medal, while British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak won the medal for prose.

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Marianne Elliott, the Tony-winning director of “War Horse,” “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” and the Broadway revival of “Angels in America,” wondered what would happen if you turned Bobby into Bobbie and cast the role with a woman.

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The Veterans Support to Self-Reliance pilot program in California, created last year to keep aging veterans housed, could shape how all homeless service providers approach housing older people if the program is successful, The War Horse reports.

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Sir Michael, the best-selling author of over 150 books, including Private Peaceful and War Horse, said the initiative aims to give children "their right" to discover the enjoyment of reading.

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Related Words

• old-timer