one-trick pony
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Someone or something with only one skill or talent
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Người hoặc thứ gì chỉ có một kỹ năng hoặc tài năng
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a pony that can do only one trick
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The new employee was a one-trick pony, only able to complete one task efficiently
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “one-trick pony” mean?
Someone or something with only one skill or talent Literally: a pony that can do only one trick
Is “one-trick pony” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.