horses

C1 · Advanced Plural noun Slang · Informal

n. a casual way to talk about how much power a car engine has.

n. a slang clipping of horsepower, referring to the power output of an internal combustion engine.

“That old truck has a lot of horses under the hood.”

“The mechanic explained that while the engine had plenty of horses, the transmission was too weak to handle the torque.”

B2 · Upper Intermediate Informal

v. to play or move in a rough or silly way, usually with 'around'.

v. the third-person singular present indicative of 'horse'; typically used in the phrasal verb 'horse around' to mean engaging in boisterous play.

“He always horses around when he should be finishing his homework.”

“The supervisor noticed that the crew often horses around during the afternoon lull, which occasionally leads to minor safety violations.”