workhorse

[wurk-hawrs]

noun

1. a horse used for plowing, hauling, and other heavy labor, as distinguished from a riding horse, racehorse, etc.

2. a person who works tirelessly at a task, assumes extra duties, etc.

workhorse

/ ˈwɜːkˌhɔːs /

noun

1. a horse used for nonrecreational activities

2. informal,  a person who takes on the greatest amount of work in a project or job

Word History and Origins

Origin of workhorse¹

First recorded in 1535–45; work + horse

Example Sentences

These monsters have supplanted coal generators as the workhorses of the U.S. power grid because they are more efficient, less polluting and more flexible.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But the system is not reusable, unlike SpaceX's Falcon 9 workhorse.

Read more on Barron's

What Snell hasn’t done, however, is prove himself to be a workhorse.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

SpaceX primarily provides launch services to commercial and military satellite customers with its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which has a payload of up to 23 metric tons.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

You see football like an ideal world when you are out of the game and you would love to work there, and when it becomes your everyday work, it's just a workhorse.

Read more on BBC