packhorsen.adj.

?a1500 Nominale (Yale Beinecke 594) in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 757/38 Hic saginarius [perh. read sagmarius], a palhors [read pakhorse].

1526 Eltham Ordinances in Coll. Ordinances Royal Househ. (1790) 204 The number of all the Kings Horses, &c... Pack horses..Sompters & Besage horses.

1630 tr. G. Botero Relations Famous Kingdomes World (rev. ed.) 481 Two hundred Horsemen in Moscovie, require three hundred Packe-horses.

1725 D. Defoe Compl. Eng. Tradesman I. xxiii. 396 Carriage by pack-horses and by waggons.

1772 in N. D. Mereness Trav. in Amer. Colonies 554 Sent a Servant with a packhorse to the Greehaws to Carry my baggage to this place.

1805 M. Lewis & W. Clark Orig. Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1905) i. 254 The men..took with them 3 pack horses.

1892 in S. Dakota Hist. Coll. I. 56 Thither went the pack horses, the wagon trains, the stage coaches.

1949 J. G. MacGregor Blankets & Beads 77 They had to abandon their canoes and proceed on foot and with the pack horses.

1984 G. Jennings Journeyer iii. 361 Their shaggy little packhorses were heaped with the baled pelts of fox.

?1577 Misogonus in R. W. Bond Early Plays from Ital. (1911) 233 That old lyzarde has no more witt then y^e wethercocke of poles a shame take him had he none to make his packehorse but me?

1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III i. iii. 122 I was a packhorse in his great affaires. View more context for this quotation

1693 A. Wood Life & Times (1894) III. 436 He has been a packhorse in the practical and old galenical way of physick.

1768 O. Goldsmith Good Natur'd Man ii. 22 I'll be pack-horse to none of them.

1818 S. E. Ferrier Marriage III. ii. 25 In real life they become perfect pack-horses, saddled with the whole offences of the family.

1857 J. W. Howe World's Own iii. v. 95 ‘Do but my errand—we shall meet ere long.’ ‘(Am I his pack-horse?) I will see it done.’

1984 V. Brome Freud & his Disciples xi. 156 His willingness to play the psycho-analytic packhorse made him accept tedious secretarial jobs from which most other members of the Committee recoiled.

2001 Oldie Dec. 8/1 Granada's tired old packhorse has failed to keep pace with the BBC's Eastenders in the television ratings.

1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares 65 b Violent are most of our packe-horse Pulpit-men.

1647 H. More Philos. Poems 311 In usuall pack-horse form Keeping the rode.

1795 J. Wolcot Liberty's Last Squeak iii, in Wks. (1812) III. 425 Our Lords on high, Who call the under-world of man, An assish, mulish, packhorse clan.

1833 T. S. Fay Crayon Sketches I. 150 Every griping scoundrel twitteth them [sc. idle people] and vaunteth his superior pack-horse qualifications.

1925 Amer. Mercury Aug. 507/1 The essays with which he beguiled the fugitive and elusive leisure of a pack-horse professional life.

2003 Independent (Nexis) 7 Feb. No one is going to buy this car for its pack-horse proclivities.

1871 St. Paul's Mag. Jan. 318 They call this the pack-horse bridge. You see there's room for the horses' legs, and their loads could stick out over the parapets.

1992 National Trust Mag. Autumn 24/1 Every new corner offered yet another unforgettable picture-postcard view: the packhorse bridge at Allerford, limewashed cottages with overhanging eaves [etc.].

1645 Sc. Dove sent Out No. 111. 875 At last they came with a greater partie, and entred their houses,..there being that night many Waggons and Pack-horse-Carryers in the Towne.

1845 Colburn's New Monthly Mag. Feb. 226 The next day I agreed with a viaggante, or pack-horse carrier, to take Ferdinand and my baggage to Sempio.

1947 P. E. Bentley Colne Valley Cloth 27 They sent their cloth by pack-horse carrier to London.

1725 in N. D. Mereness Trav. in Amer. Colonies (1916) 133 Issued to Capt Wm. Hatton..additional Instructions..forbidding his two Packhorse men to Trade.

1853 Putnam's Monthly Mag. June 667 The first wagon-road made over the mountains to Pittsburgh..would break up the pack-horse men..and the tavern-keepers and horse-breeders would be ruined.

1961 D. Stuart Driven iv. 39 Every backtrack from station to station a hard-bitten track with no work, and packhorse men on the move all the time.

1872 H. I. Jenkinson Guide Eng. Lake District (1879) 53 The old packhorse track from Kendal to Whitehaven.

1952 T. Armstrong Adam Brunskill vii. 245 A pack-horse track still marked by crumbling wooden snow-posts.

2001 Townsville (Queensland) Bull. (Nexis) 13 Nov. 806 The trail..follows historic coach and stock routes, old packhorse tracks and country roads.

1899 Gentleman's Mag. Dec. 540 An excursion between Little Langdale and Eskdale, over a pack-horse trail now little used.

1990 Country Living Aug. 64/1 I want to walk up the old packhorse trail behind Mellbreak and up and over into Ennerdale.

1656 J. Collop Poesis Rediviva 61 Thou Paracelsus makest Galens friend;..Yet thou from neitheir packhorse-like tak'st load.

1792 J. Hurdis Sir Thomas More iv. 98 Pack-horse like, Still I am plodding on, and find no rest.

1998 European Royal Hist. Jrnl. Nov.–Dec. A remote Vilhelm, standing..beside a glum Marie, who supports packhorse-like all the weight of Catherine the Great's diamond coronet and yards of velvet, ermine, and brocade.