high horse

See synonyms for high horse on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a haughty attitude or temper; a contemptuous manner.

Origin of high horse

1
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425

Words Nearby high horse

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use high horse in a sentence

  • And I don't say this from atop some moral or aesthetic or populist high horse.

    Wall Street's Dirty Little Secret | Tunku Varadarajan | January 17, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • But with you it's different, and she's on her dignity—riding her high horse.

    From Place to Place | Irvin S. Cobb
  • Albert Fitzallen did not ride a very high horse when he learned that his supposed rival was so anxious to assist him.

    Orley Farm | Anthony Trollope
  • She'd be, I suppose, on her high horse—and—and 'tis not a feather to me.

    The House by the Church-Yard | J. Sheridan Le Fanu
  • I could not help feeling that I was riding "a high horse;" but the injustice done me seemed to warrant it.

    Breaking Away | Oliver Optic
  • Jimmy Wilkinson owes me money, and he owes me an apology, and he's got to come down from his high horse, or I'm a liar.

    A Dream of Empire | William Henry Venable

Cultural definitions for high horse

high horse

To be on one's “high horse” is to be disdainful or conceited: “Sally got tired of Peter's snobbery and finally told him to get off his high horse.”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Other Idioms and Phrases with high horse

high horse

see on one's high horse.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.