Meaning & use
horse-drawn
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a noun
pulled by a horse or horses, especially of a vehicle or farm machine.
Grammar: Comes before the noun it describes: a horse-drawn carriage. You do not say 'the carriage is horse-drawn' very often, but it is possible.
Patterns
- horse-drawn vehicle
- horse-drawn carriage
- horse-drawn cart
Tourists rode through the old town in a horse-drawn carriage.
Before tractors, farmers used horse-drawn plows.
The museum has a collection of horse-drawn fire engines.
Common combinations
- horse-drawn carriage
- A horse-drawn carriage waited outside the hotel.
- horse-drawn cart
- He delivered milk with a horse-drawn cart.
- horse-drawn vehicle
- Horse-drawn vehicles were banned from the highway.
- horse-drawn plow
- The old horse-drawn plow stood in the field.
Synonyms and how they differ
- animal-drawn
- Broader, because it can mean pulled by oxen or donkeys as well as horses.
Opposites
Word family
- horse noun
- A large animal that people ride and use for pulling things.
Commonly confused: horse-drawn or horse-drawn vs. horse riding?
horse-drawn vs horse-drawn vs. horse riding
Horse-drawn means pulled by a horse; horse riding means sitting on a horse and controlling it.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'horse-drawn' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Horse-drawn' is an adjective that goes before a noun, so 'horse-drawn carriage' is correct. The other options use it as a verb or a noun, which is wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “horse-drawn”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.