break a horse

Meanings

1. 1phraseidiom

   To train a young horse to accept a saddle, a rider and commands for the first time.

   Grammar: Takes an object: break a young horse. The verb break changes form: broke, broken.

   Patterns

   • break a horse
   • break in a horse

   It takes patience to break a horse without frightening it.

   The ranch hand spent the whole spring learning to break a horse.

   They hired a trainer to break the colts before summer.

2. 2phraseidiomfigurativedisapproving

   To make a person or animal give up its will, by hard methods; used mostly figuratively.

   Grammar: Figurative and often critical in this sense.

   Patterns

   • break someone like a horse

   Critics said the strict academy tried to break students the way you break a horse.

   Nobody can break a horse that has been treated with cruelty in a day.

   She refused to be broken like a horse by her demanding boss.

Word forms

Common combinations

break a wild horse

No one had managed to break the wild horse.

break a young horse

He broke a young horse every year.

learn to break a horse

She learned to break a horse at a stable in Montana.

break a horse gently

A good trainer breaks a horse gently.

Synonyms and how they differ

train

Train is gentler and can apply to any skills, while break stresses the first stage of acceptance.

tame

Tame suggests making a wild animal safe around people, not only taking a saddle.

gentle

Gentle, used of horses, means calm training without force.

school

School a horse means to train it in particular movements, usually after it is already broken.

Opposites

Word family

horse-breaker noun

a person who trains young horses

broken adjective

trained to accept a rider

bronco noun

an untrained or half-trained horse

Commonly confused: break a horse or break a leg?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “break a horse”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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