English · Idiom Historical

Shanks 's Mare

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To ride Shanks 's mare is to go on foot, the shanks being the legs. A similar phrase is "Going by the marrow-bone stage" or "by Walker's bus.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

đi bộ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Horses Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “Shanks 's Mare” mean?

To ride Shanks 's mare is to go on foot, the shanks being the legs. A similar phrase is "Going by the marrow-bone stage" or "by Walker's bus.

Is “Shanks 's Mare” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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