steeplechase

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a horse race across country or around a course containing fences, ditches, and other obstacles

   Three horses cleared the final fence together in the steeplechase.

2. 2
   noun

   an athletics race, usually 3,000 meters, in which runners clear fixed barriers and water jumps

   She cleared the water jump cleanly during the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

A compound of steeple + chase. The name comes from eighteenth-century Irish horse races run across open country from one church steeple to another, the visible steeples serving as course markers. The athletics event later borrowed the name and obstacle-racing idea.

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