Word.ws English Dictionary

one-horse races

one-horse races is the plural of one-horse race.

Meaning of one-horse race

Noun

one-horse race (plural one-horse races)

  1. (informal) A horse race in which a single horse takes such a considerable lead that the other horses are no longer contenders to win.
    • Since riding Harry Payne Whitney's Whiskery to victory in the Kentucky Derby, Jockey Linus ("Pony") McAtee has twice broken into the news in unconventional fashion. A fortnight ago, he won a one-horse race ("walkover") at Belmont Park, N. Y.1927 June 13, “Sport: Again, McAtee”, in Time, retrieved 26 Jul 2014
  2. (broadly, idiomatic) An election campaign or other competitive situation in which only one competitor is entered or in which only one competitor has a realistic chance of winning.
    • Although Mr Balladur is far ahead in the opinion polls, the spring election is far from being a one-horse race.1995 January 19, Andrew Marshall, “Balladur takes first step to presidency”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 26 Jul 2014

Questions about one-horse races

What is one-horse races the plural of?
One-horse races is the plural of one-horse race.

Words near one-horse races in the dictionary

  1. one-holers
  2. one-horse
  3. one-horse lawyer
  4. one-horse lawyers
  5. one-horse race
  6. one-horse races
  7. one-horse town
  8. one-horse towns
  9. one-hot
  10. one-hots
  11. one-hour fuel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: one-horse races (page history and authors); one-horse race (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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