Meanings
plural yardhorses
- A heavy-duty tractor designed for moving shipping containers on chassis around a shipping terminal.
A yardhorse is used to move the air-truck container to the 747 containership.
1980, Hobart McKinley Conway, The Airport City: Development Concepts for the 21st Century, page 1392 more examples
Plaintiffs contended that on the night of the subject accident the decedent unhooked the yardhorse from a trailer and had parked it 10 feet in front of the trailer to drop a nosepin on the trailer; that after the decedent left the yardgoat- and while he was attempting to lower the nosepin, the yardgoat, which apparently had been in neutral, silently engaged into reverse, moved back and crushed the decedent under the trailer.
1975, Jury Verdicts Weekly - Volume 19, page 4For example, containers are constantly being loaded and unloaded, yardhorses are moving containers throughout the terminal, cranes and stackers are at work, and so forth.
2017, Hildebrand, Gregory G. Noll, & Bill Hand, Intermodal Container Emergencies, →ISBN, page 89
Origin
From yard + horse. The name is figurative, calling a tractor a horse (compare iron horse for locomotive); the name as a solid compound seems not to be attested in an earlier sense referring to a draft horse working in a yard such as a barnyard, lumberyard, or coalyard, although as an open compound or sum of parts, yard horse would be unsurprising there.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
yardhorse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yardhorse
“yardhorse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yardhorse. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “yardhorse,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/yardhorse.
Source: yardhorse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.