ˈpack-ˌhorse
[f. pack n.1 + horse n.]
A horse used for carrying packs or bundles of goods.
| c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 757/38 Hic saginarius, a pakhors [printed palhors]. 1552 Huloet, Packehorse or mule, clitellarius. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 481 Two hundred Horsemen in Moscovie, require three hundred Packe-horses. 1745 De Foe's Eng. Tradesman xxvi. (1841) I. 260 Carriage by packhorses and by wagons. 1859 Thackeray Virgin. i, Strings of pack-horses that had not yet left the road. |
b. fig. A drudge.
| 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. iii. 122, I was a packe-horse in his great affaires. 1693 Wood Life 27 Nov. (O.H.S.) III. 436 He has been a packhorse in the practical and old galenical way of physick. 1768 Goldsm. Good-n. Man ii. i, I'll be pack-horse to none of them. |
c. attrib. and Comb.
| 1593 Nashe Christs T. 65 b, Violent are most of our packe-horse Pulpit-men. a 1703 Pomfret Fortunate Compl. 44 He..pack-horse like, jogs on beneath his load. 1791 W. Bartram Carolina 384 The heat and the burning flies..such..as to excite compassion even in the hearts of pack-horsemen. 1872 Jenkinson Guide Eng. Lakes (1879) 53 The old packhorse track from Kendal to Whitehaven. |