wild horses

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

wild horses

1. plural of wild horse
2. (idiomatic) A force not subject to human control and normally stronger than a man.

   Wild horses wouldn't have kept me from going to the party.

   • 1869, Mackenzie Daniel, James Wyvern's Sin, page 298:

     there's no denying that when you take a thing in your head wild horses couldn't turn you from it

Usage notes

• The idiomatic usage is almost always limited to expressions of the form "wild horses couldn't" or "wild horses wouldn't".