hackney

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a carriage or cab kept for public hire; now chiefly historical except in the term hackney carriage

   They left the station in a hackney hired from the rank outside.

2. 2
   noun

   a compact, high-stepping breed of harness horse

   The Hackney moved around the ring with the breed's characteristic high action.

3. 3
   noun

   an ordinary riding or driving horse, especially one available for hire; historical

   The traveler hired a steady hackney for the journey to the next town.

Common collocations

• hackney carriage Noun + noun

From Middle English hakeney, 'a small saddle horse, especially one for hire,' probably from the place-name Hackney, near London, where horses may once have been pastured. The hire-horse sense extended to hired carriages and cabs; repeated common use also produced the figurative derivative hackneyed.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images