wheel horse
Americannoun
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Also called wheeler. a horse, or one of the horses, harnessed behind others and nearest the front wheels of a vehicle.
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Chiefly South Atlantic States. the left-hand horse of a pair hitched to a wagon or plow.
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Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. a reliable, diligent, and strong worker.
noun
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another word for wheeler
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a person who works steadily or hard
Etymology
Origin of wheel horse
First recorded in 1700–10
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.
“It’s a new economy and a new way of life, and the origins are the invention of the wheel, horse riding, and dairying.”
From Science Magazine ● Sep. 15, 2021
He always reported for votes on crucial measures, has been a loyal wheel horse day in, day out, hardworking, steady, easy to know and easy to like.
From Time Magazine Archive
Representative Henry Bascom Steagall of Alabama, smalltown lawyer and Democratic wheel horse since 1902.
From Time Magazine Archive
For the post of dean of the graduate school and senior college Chancellor Kirkland had chosen no Vanderbilt wheel horse but President Oliver Cromwell Carmichael of Alabama College.
From Time Magazine Archive
By what method could this wheel horse of reform best be harnessed to the car of educational progress?
From The New Education A Review of Progressive Educational Movements of the Day (1915) by Nearing, Scott
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.
