Word.ws English Dictionary

charley horses

charley horses is the plural of charley horse.

Meaning of charley horse

Noun

charley horse (plural charley horses)

  1. (US, idiomatic) Synonym of cramp, a painful involuntary muscle contraction, particularly a strong cramp in the torso, arms, or legs.
    • Several years ago, says the Chicago Tribune, Joe Quest, now of the Athletics, gave the name of ‘Charlie horse’ to a peculiar contraction and hardening of the muscles and tendons of the thigh, to which base ball players are especially liable from the sudden starting and stopping in chasing balls, as...1886 July 17, Boston Globe, page 5
    Synonyms:
    cramp
  2. (informal) A punch in the thigh.
    • I knew to just keep my mouth shut about it — unless I wanted the word "dummy" to be followed by a charley horse.2006, Joe L. Kincheloe, The Praeger Handbook of Urban Education, volume 1, page 324

Questions about charley horses

What is charley horses the plural of?
Charley horses is the plural of charley horse.

Words near charley horses in the dictionary

  1. Charlevoix County
  2. Charlevoix disease
  3. Charlewood
  4. charley
  5. charley horse
  6. charley horses
  7. Charley Noble
  8. Charley Nobles
  9. charley-horse
  10. charley-horses
  11. Charley-pitcher

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: charley horses (page history and authors); charley horse (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.

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