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 is Zenko Suzuki, 69, a little-known party wheel horse who unexpectedly emerged last week as the compromise candidate of the Liberal Democrats' feuding factions.
From Time Magazine Archive
The wheel horse of the Army line is bashful, 225-lb.
From Time Magazine Archive
He applied equal energy to Democratic politics in Harlem, where, as a faithful Tammany Hall wheel horse, he won seven elections to the state assembly.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mind and body need to be driven tandem, the body for the wheel horse and the intellect the leader.
From Around The Tea-Table by Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
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.
