you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Also seen as: you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink
Sense 1
You can show someone how to do something, but you can't make them do it.
Sources & notes
Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30 via kaikki.org).
Sense 2
You can provide someone with an opportunity, but you cannot force them to take it
Examples
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). 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 “you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink” mean?
You can show someone how to do something, but you can't make them do it.
Is “you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.