slow your horses

Meanings

1. 1phraseidiominformal

   Used to tell someone to calm down and stop rushing or pushing ahead too fast.

   Grammar: Stands alone as a complete remark, or comes before a suggestion: Slow your horses, we're not finished yet.

   Patterns

   • slow your horses, ...
   • you'd better slow your horses

   Slow your horses — nobody has agreed to anything yet.

   Slow your horses, we still have two more questions to go through.

   She told her brother to slow his horses before he signed the contract.

2. 2phraseidiominformal

   Used to ask someone to stop being angry or excited and behave more calmly.

   Grammar: Said directly to a person, often when their voice or temper is rising.

   Patterns

   • slow your horses!
   • tell someone to slow their horses

   Slow your horses! There's no need to shout at me.

   He was about to argue, but his friend said, "Slow your horses, it's only a game."

Common combinations

tell someone to slow their horses

The manager told him to slow his horses and wait for the test results.

you'd better slow your horses

You'd better slow your horses before you promise something you can't deliver.

slow your horses a minute

Slow your horses a minute — I want to check the figures first.

Synonyms and how they differ

hold your horses

The far more common form, especially in American English, and slightly more neutral in tone.

calm down

A direct instruction to become less upset; it says nothing about hurrying, so it is not a good swap when the problem is speed.

take it easy

Suggests relaxing rather than stopping; it is softer and can also mean "rest".

Opposites

Commonly confused: slow your horses or hold your horses?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “slow your horses”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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