Meaning & use
clothes horse
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Meanings
nouncountableBritish
A folding frame with bars, used indoors for hanging washed clothes so they dry.
Grammar: Has a plural: two clothes horses stood in the hallway.
Patterns
- hang something on a clothes horse
She draped the wet sweaters over the clothes horse by the radiator.
We folded the clothes horse and stored it behind the door when the sun came out.
Our small flat is full of clothes horses all winter.
nouncountableinformaldisapprovingfigurative
A person who cares a great deal about wearing fashionable clothes, or who mainly serves as a model for them.
Grammar: Used about people, often with a slightly critical tone: he is a real clothes horse.
Patterns
- be a clothes horse
My cousin is a clothes horse and spends most of his pay on designer jackets.
The actress was criticized as a mere clothes horse for the brand's new campaign.
Nobody can call him a clothes horse, since he wears the same gray coat every day.
Word forms
| plural | clothes horses |
|---|
Common combinations
- a wooden clothes horse
- The wooden clothes horse folded flat for storage.
- dry laundry on a clothes horse
- They dry their laundry on a clothes horse because the dryer is broken.
- unfold a clothes horse
- He unfolded the clothes horse in the spare room.
- nothing but a clothes horse
- The critics said the lead character was nothing but a clothes horse.
- a real clothes horse
- Her sister is a real clothes horse and owns forty pairs of shoes.
Synonyms and how they differ
- airer
- This is the common British word for the household frame and is slightly more everyday, while clothes horse can also describe a fashion-obsessed person.
- drying rack
- This is the more usual American term for the frame and has no figurative meaning about people.
- fashion plate
- This describes someone who dresses very stylishly and is closer to admiration, whereas clothes horse often hints that clothes are all the person cares about.
- fashionista
- This is a trendier word for a devoted follower of fashion and sounds friendlier than the sometimes dismissive clothes horse.
Word family
- clothes noun
- things people wear
- clothesline noun
- a rope or wire outside for hanging washing
- clothespin noun
- a clip that holds washing on a line
- clothe verb
- to provide with clothes
Commonly confused: clothes horse or clotheshorse? clothes horse or coat hanger?
clothes horse vs clotheshorse
This is simply a variant spelling as one word, mostly used for the fashionable person; both spellings are understood.
clothes horse vs coat hanger
A coat hanger holds one garment in a wardrobe, whereas a clothes horse is a free-standing frame for wet laundry.
Practice
After the rain, Mia hung her wet jeans on the ___ in the hallway to dry overnight.
Choose one answer.
A clothes horse is a frame for drying washing. A coat hanger holds a single dry garment, a laundry basket only carries clothes, and a fashion plate is a stylish person.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “clothes horse”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.