Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

one-horse lawyer

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.41 in modern English

Syllables: one-horse lawyer
IPA

23

Scrabble Score

14

Letters

2

Syllables

10

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A lawyer who has only worked in a small town, lacking the experience and sophistication of more prominent lawyers.

Example Sentences

"The two chatted about several matters, and then the visitor commented, "Mr. Lincoln, if anybody had told me that in a general crisis like this the people were going out to a little one-horse town to pick out a one-horse lawyer for President, I wouldn't have believed it.""
"I was a one horse lawyer in this one horse town."
"Then Warren picked up a one-horse lawyer down in his own town and he and that lawyer went to St. Paul where Warren made another speech, which—of course—from a lawyer's standpoint was wholly irrelevant and insulting."

Etymology

From the agricultural phrase one-horse meaning 'to be drawn/worked by a single horse.' This led to "one-horse" being expanded to mean anything small or contemptible.

Inflected Forms

one-horse lawyers (plural)

Questions

What does one-horse lawyer mean?: A lawyer who has only worked in a small town, lacking the experience and sophistication of more prominent lawyers.
Where does one-horse lawyer come from?: From the agricultural phrase one-horse meaning 'to be drawn/worked by a single horse.' This led to "one-horse" being expanded to mean anything small or contemptible.

How to pronounce one-horse lawyer

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “one-horse lawyer”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “one-horse lawyer”.
Repeat and practice — Say “one-horse lawyer” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.