charlie horse
charlie horse is the alternative spelling of charley horse.
Meaning of charley horse
Noun
charley horse (plural charley horses)
- 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
- 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
Forms of charlie horse
| plural | charlie horses |
|---|
Questions about charlie horse
- What is charlie horse the alternative spelling of?
- Charlie horse is the alternative spelling of charley horse.
Words near charlie horse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: charlie horse (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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Cite this entry: “charlie horse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/charlie_horse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.