gift horse
gift horse noun: an apparent gift, that has substantial associated costs or drawbacks, especially a gift that does not fit perfectly with the recipient's wants or needs.
Noun
gift horse (plural gift horses)
- An apparent gift, that has substantial associated costs or drawbacks, especially a gift that does not fit perfectly with the recipient's wants or needs.
- Having now, as he thought, balanced this little account of friendship, the captain was about to shift his saddle to this noble gift-horse when the affectionate patriarch plucked him by the sleeve, and introduced to him a whimpering, whining, leathern-skinned old squaw, that might have passed for an...1837, Washington Irving, The Adventures of Captain Bonneville
- To human beings, on the other hand, each meme vehicle is a potential friend or foe, bearing a gift that will enhance our powers or a gift horse that will distract us, burden our memories, derange our judgment.1996, Daniel Clement Dennett, Darwin's dangerous idea: evolution and the meanings of life, page 352
gift horse meaning in Bengali
gift horse in Bengali
- একটি আপাত উপহার
Examples of gift horse in a sentence
- You don't have to pay for them." / Well, a gift horse and all that.1990 Fall, Daniel Tyree McElrath, “Abusing the Privilege”, in Ploughshares, volume 16, number 2/3, page 154:
- Still, what it is they say about a gift horse?2000, Michelle Spring, Running for Shelter, page 164:
- You know what they say about a gift horse, man.2009, John Hart, The last child:
Forms of gift horse
| plural | gift horses |
|---|
Origin of gift horse
From the economics of horse ownership, in which an aging horse of declining value continues to require feeding and stabling. Possibly influenced by the proverb don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Questions about gift horse
- What does gift horse mean?
- Gift horse means an apparent gift, that has substantial associated costs or drawbacks, especially a gift that does not fit perfectly with the recipient's wants or needs.
- What is gift horse in Bengali?
- Gift horse in Bengali is একটি আপাত উপহার. See Gift horse meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use gift horse in a sentence?
- You don't have to pay for them." / Well, a gift horse and all that.
- What part of speech is gift horse?
- Gift horse is a noun.
- What is the plural of gift horse?
- The plural of gift horse is gift horses.
Words near gift horse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gift horse (page history and authors); gift horse (Bengali Wiktionary) (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-gift horse.ogg.
Cite this entry: “gift horse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gift_horse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.