one-horse

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   small, unimportant, or having very limited resources

   The newspaper portrayed the village as a one-horse town with little opportunity.

2. 2
   adj

   drawn, powered, or worked by a single horse

   A one-horse cart carried the sacks from the field.

A compound of one + horse, first used literally for something drawn or operated by one horse. Because such equipment was modest in scale, the adjective developed the figurative sense 'small or unimportant.'

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