ride a horse foaled by an acorn

present singular third person rides a horse foaled by an acorn · participle present riding a horse foaled by an acorn · past rode a horse foaled by an acorn · participle past ridden a horse foaled by an acorn · alternative mount a horse foaled by an acorn · alternative ride a horse foaled of an acorn

1. obsoleteslangTo be hanged on the gallows.

   You'll ride on a horſe that was foal'd of an acron. That is; the gallows.

   1670, John Ray, “Proverbial Phraſes”, in A Compleat Collection of Engliſh Proverbs, 4th edition, published 1768, page 197

   3 more examples

   "What ho, my kiddy!" cried Job, "don't be glimflashy; why you'd cry beef on a blater; the cove is a bob cull, and a pal of my own; and moreover, is as pretty a Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an acorn."

   1828, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter 82, in Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman, page 385

   Fourteen, sir. No age to be riding a horse foaled by an acorn, I can tell you.

   2003, Michael Crummey, River Thieves, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 272

   A sheep stealer, the mother told the child... and now the man twisted there, riding a horse foaled by an acorn, as the saying went, while the fat Welsh sheep in safety grazed the green pasture all around.

   2008, Barbara Ker Wilson, The Lost Years of Jane Austen, Ulysses Press, →ISBN, page 21

   Synonyms: hang, swing, dance on a rope, dance on nothing, dance the hempen jig, dance the Tyburn jig, dance upon nothing, dangle