Meanings
plural four-in-hands
- 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 621 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., →OCLCSynonyms: coach-and-four
- 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 293Synonyms: schoolboy knot
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA carriage drawn by four horses controlled by one driver.
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
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Hungarian négyes fogat
- négyes fogatcarriage
Cite this entry
four-in-hand. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/four-in-hand
“four-in-hand.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/four-in-hand. Accessed November 4, 2026.
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.