Workhorse
//ˈwɜːkhɔːs// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A horse used primarily for manual labor; a draft horse.
- 2 a horse used for plowing and hauling and other heavy labor wordnet
- 3 Someone or something that does a lot of work; something or someone who works consistently or regularly. broadly
"Those old machines are not very glamorous, but even 20 years after their introduction, they are still the workhorses of the industry."
- 4 machine that performs dependably under heavy use wordnet
Example
More examples"Somewhere in La Mancha, in a place whose name I do not wish to recall, there lived not long ago a nobleman. To his name he had a lance in its sheath, an old leather buckler, a scrawny workhorse and a greyhound that scurried about."
Etymology
From Middle English werkehorse, equivalent to work + horse.
Related phrases
More for "workhorse"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.