Word.ws English Dictionary

donkey power

donkey power noun: a unit of power equal to 250 watts, or about one third of a horsepower.

Noun

donkey power

  1. (humorous) A unit of power equal to 250 watts, or about one third of a horsepower.
    • The Yugo car was famous for how anemic its engine was, but its output sounded more impressive when reported in donkey power.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: motive power provided by one or more donkeys.
    • In that era, most of the equipment in this mine was run by donkey power.

Origin of donkey power

The humorous unit of power is modelled on horsepower, since a donkey is a less powerful draught animal than a horse.

Questions about donkey power

What does donkey power mean?
Donkey power means a unit of power equal to 250 watts, or about one third of a horsepower.
What part of speech is donkey power?
Donkey power is a noun.

Words near donkey power in the dictionary

  1. donkey kicks
  2. donkey kong
  3. donkey kongs
  4. donkey orchid
  5. donkey orchids
  6. donkey power
  7. donkey pronoun
  8. donkey pronouns
  9. donkey pump
  10. donkey pumps
  11. donkey punch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: donkey power (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: “donkey power.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/donkey_power. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.