Word.ws English Dictionary

change horses in midstream

change horses in midstream verb: to change one's plan or approach when an effort is already underway or at another inopportune time.

Verb

change horses in midstream (third-person singular simple present changes horses in midstream, present participle changing horses in midstream, simple past and past participle changed horses in midstream)

  1. (idiomatic) To change one's plan or approach when an effort is already underway or at another inopportune time.
    • A change in the weather is known to be extreme / But what's the sense of changing horses in midstream?1975, Bob Dylan, “You're a Big Girl Now”, in Blood on the Tracks

Forms of change horses in midstream

third-person singular presentchanges horses in midstream
present participlechanging horses in midstream
past participlechanged horses in midstream
pastchanged horses in midstream
alternative formswap horses in midstream
alternative formchange horses in mid-stream

Origin of change horses in midstream

Popularized by Abraham Lincoln.

Questions about change horses in midstream

What does change horses in midstream mean?
Change horses in midstream means to change one's plan or approach when an effort is already underway or at another inopportune time.
What part of speech is change horses in midstream?
Change horses in midstream is a verb.
What is the past tense of change horses in midstream?
The past tense of change horses in midstream is changed horses in midstream.

Words near change horses in midstream in the dictionary

  1. change course
  2. change down
  3. change hand
  4. change hands
  5. change horses in mid-stream
  6. change horses in midstream
  7. Change Islands
  8. change key
  9. change keys
  10. change like seasons
  11. change like the seasons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: change horses in midstream (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-change horses in midstream.ogg.

Cite this entry: “change horses in midstream.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/change_horses_in_midstream. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.