English Explanatory Dictionary

one-horse town

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A very small town, especially one of a rural nature and offering very few or no attractions.

Pronunciation

En-au-one-horse town.ogg

Word forms

one-horse town one-horse towns

Etymology

The term “one-horse” originated as an agricultural phrase, meaning to be drawn or worked by a single horse. This led to the use of this phrase in a metaphorical sense as something that is small or insignificant. Charles Dickens explained in his publication All the Year Round (1871): ‘One horse’ is an agricultural phrase, applied to anything small or insignificant, or to any inconsiderable or contemptible person: as a ‘one-horse town,’ a ‘one-horse bank,’ a ‘one-horse hotel,’ a ‘one-horse lawyer’, etc.

Synonyms

jerkwater town one-blink town Podunk Isolated town bump in the road jerkwater jerk-water one-horse town wide spot in the road Isolated place arse end of nowhere back of beyond back forty backcountry backwater backwoods beyond the black stump boondock boondocks boonies bumfuck middle of nowhere bumfuck nowhere dullsville edge of the earth edge of the world ends of the earth ends of the world hinterland middle of nowhere north forty off the beaten track out of the way sticks the sticks Actual places back o' Bourke Outer Mongolia Timbuktu Tuktoyaktuk Fictional places Anytown BFE Bumblefuck Bumfuck Egypt Idaho Iowa Kansas Minnesota Nowhere Ohio Buttfuck East Bumfuck East Jesus Hicksville Nowheresville Squedunk Whateverville wop-wops Woop Woop
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