Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

one-horse town

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.63 in modern English

Syllables: one-horse -town
IPA

18

Scrabble Score

12

Letters

3

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A very small town, especially one of a rural nature and offering very few or no attractions.

American usage

Example Sentences

"It's surrounded by beautiful wilderness, but otherwise it's just a one-horse town."
"The journey took 48 hours with a stopover in a Bates-style motel in the one-horse town of Marblemount – the last services for 70 wild miles of boscage and bears."

Etymology

The term “one-horse” originated as an agricultural phrase, meaning to be drawn or worked by a single horse. This led to the use of this phrase in a metaphorical sense as something that is small or insignificant. Charles Dickens explained in his publication All the Year Round (1871): ‘One horse’ is an agricultural phrase, applied to anything small or insignificant, or to any inconsiderable or contemptible person: as a ‘one-horse town,’ a ‘one-horse bank,’ a ‘one-horse hotel,’ a ‘one-horse lawyer’, etc.

Usage

American usage

Inflected Forms

one-horse towns (plural)

Synonyms

jerkwater town one-blink town Podunk Isolated town bump in the road jerkwater jerk-water one-horse town wide spot in the road Isolated place arse end of nowhere back of beyond

Questions

What does one-horse town mean?: A very small town, especially one of a rural nature and offering very few or no attractions.
Where does one-horse town come from?: The term “one-horse” originated as an agricultural phrase, meaning to be drawn or worked by a single horse. This led to the use of this phrase in a metaphorical sense as something that is small or insignificant. Charles Dickens explained in his publication All the Year Round (1871): ‘One horse’ is an agricultural phrase, applied to anything small or insignificant, or to any inconsiderable or contemptible person: as a ‘one-horse town,’ a ‘one-horse bank,’ a ‘one-horse hotel,’ a ‘one-horse lawyer’, etc.

How to pronounce one-horse town

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