Word.ws English Dictionary

straight from the horse's mouth

straight from the horse's mouth adverb: directly from the source; firsthand.

Adverb

straight from the horse's mouth (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Directly from the source; firsthand.
    • If you don't believe me, go talk to him and hear it straight from the horse's mouth. It's true.

Adjective

straight from the horse's mouth (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) firsthand; direct; from the source.
    • This is straight from the horse's mouth.

Origin of straight from the horse's mouth

This idiom comes from British horse-racing circles, likely because the presumed ideal source for racing tips would be the horse rather than spectators or riders.

Questions about straight from the horse's mouth

What does straight from the horse's mouth mean?
Straight from the horse's mouth means directly from the source; firsthand.
What part of speech is straight from the horse's mouth?
Straight from the horse's mouth can be an adverb or an adjective.

Words near straight from the horse's mouth in the dictionary

  1. straight face tests
  2. straight faces
  3. straight flush
  4. straight flushes
  5. straight forward
  6. straight from the horse's mouth
  7. straight from the shoulder
  8. straight goods
  9. straight hit
  10. straight hits
  11. straight jacket

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: straight from the horse's mouth (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-straight from the horse's mouth.ogg.

Cite this entry: “straight from the horse's mouth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/straight_from_the_horse%27s_mouth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.