four-in-hand

noun

A carriage drawn by four horses controlled by one driver.

Similar
coach-and-fourschoolboy knotcoach

Meanings

nounfour-in-hand (plural four-in-hands)

plural four-in-hands

  1. A carriage drawn by four horses controlled by one driver.

    ‘I must see him!’ he exclaimed; but at that moment the Duke of Berwick's four-in-hand came between, and when it had left the space clear, the carriage had swept out of the Park.

    1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vintage, published 2007, page 62
    1 more example

    Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.

    1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

    Synonyms: coach-and-four

  2. USA slip knot with one end hanging in front of the other; a simple necktie.

    He wore a black frock coat and light trousers, his cravat a gray four-in-hand.

    2013, A Scott Berg, Wilson, Berkley, published 2014, page 293

    Synonyms: schoolboy knot

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA carriage drawn by four horses controlled by one driver.

Similar
coach-and-four

nounA slip knot with one end hanging in front of the other; a simple necktie.

More synonyms by meaning

nouna carriage pulled by four horses with one driver

Similar
coachcoach-and-four
Also see

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Translations

Hungarian négyes fogat
  • négyes fogatcarriage
Cite this entry
APA

four-in-hand. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/four-in-hand

MLA

“four-in-hand.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/four-in-hand. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “four-in-hand,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/four-in-hand.

Source: four-in-hand on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.