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Horsepower
Definitions
- 1 Power derived from the motion of a horse. literally, uncountable
"Shillibeer's bus came in 1829 drawn by three horses. Later two horses were found sufficient to pull these closed wagonettes, which eventually had outside seats, and later on the substitution of a motor for horsepower."
- 2 a unit of power equal to 746 watts wordnet
- 3 A nonmetric unit of power with various definitions, commonly the mechanical horsepower, approximately equal to 745.7 watts. countable, uncountable
"Equally I can stand in a station like Lucerne in Switzerland, and watch with ill-concealed admiration the majestic entry of one of the latest Gotthard "Ae 6/6" electrics, packing 6,000 horsepower within its 60 ft. of length and 121 tons of weight, with its sleek dark green sides and handsome stainless steel bands and front wings."
- 4 Metric horsepower, a metric unit approximately equal to 735.5 watts. countable, uncountable
- 5 Strength, performance capability, specs, or similar. figuratively, uncountable
"political horsepower"
Etymology
From horse + power: the unit was originally defined as the amount of power that a horse could provide. Both non-metric and metric units of power were derived from effectively identical measurements of the power a draught horse could sustain over several hours, with the difference in watts solely due to different rounding errors to express that power in round numbers in the original non-SI units (ft·lbf/min and kgf⋅m/s respectively).
See also for "horsepower"
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