noun
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a horse used for nonrecreational activities
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informal a person who takes on the greatest amount of work in a project or job
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of workhorse
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:
But unlike eloquent politicians known to be showhorses, enjoying the social media clips from their media hits, El-Sayed is a workhorse, and this combination makes him formidable.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
The Kheibar Shekan missile is the workhorse of Tehran’s arsenal—a cheap, mobile, accurate weapon with a range of at least 900 miles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
The B-52 is considered a legendary workhorse, remaining a key part of the military’s fleet for decades thanks to constant improvements to the planes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
While SpaceX’s Falcon 9 partially reusable rocket has been the space industry’s workhorse for years, it does have its limitations.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 10, 2026
He was both a workhorse and a charmer, admired equally by his elders and the young women in town.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
Noncombat ships are the unglamorous workhorses of military deployments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
You could, of course, build this blend from individual jars — thyme, oregano, paprika, cayenne — but these pantry workhorses are weeknight shortcuts to complexity.
From Salon ● Feb. 24, 2026
Nvidia’s chips, known as GPUs, are the main workhorses of the AI computing revolution.
From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025
Where the Southern California land meets the Pacific waters, the beaches are the glamour-pusses, but it’s the ports that are the workhorses that bring in the heavyweight bucks.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2025
It was pulled by a pair of heavy-boned workhorses, with broad chests and sturdy, thick-furred legs that churned like pistons.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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.
