Meanings
plural carthorses · alternative cart horse · alternative cart-horse
- A large, strong horse used for pulling heavy loads.
He is not a man of independent fortune, for he works like a carthorse.
1852, Charles Dickens, Household Words2 more examples
The blacksmith's forge shone bright on the opposite side of the way, and the proprietor had the hind-leg of a carthorse in his leather-coated lap.
1840, Horace Smith, editor, Memoirs, Letters, and Comic Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, of the Late James SmithAthelstan Arundel walked home[…], foaming and raging. […] He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16
Synonyms & antonyms
noundraft horse kept for pulling carts
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Englishcrætehors“a carthorse”
- Middle Englishcarthors
- Englishcarthorse
From Middle English carthors, cartehors, from Old English crætehors (“a carthorse”), equivalent to cart + horse.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
carthorse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/carthorse
“carthorse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/carthorse. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “carthorse,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/carthorse.
Source: carthorse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.