shire horse
Preserved but no longer current.
The old breed of large, heavily built English cart-horse, originally raised m the Midland shires. The term is applied to any draught horse of a certain character which can show a registered pedigree. The sire and dam, with a minute description of the horse itself, its age, marks and so on, must be shown in order to prove the claim of a "shire horse.
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.
Common questions
What does “shire horse” mean?
The old breed of large, heavily built English cart-horse, originally raised m the Midland shires. The term is applied to any draught horse of a certain character which can show a registered pedigree. The sire and dam, with a minute description of the horse itself, its age, marks and so on, must be shown in order to prove the claim of a "shire horse.
Is “shire horse” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.