dark horse:

(plural: ‘dark horses‘)

a person who is not known to others very well but has extraordinary talents;

a politician who is not well-known but wins an election unexpectedly;

a little-known or unknown contestant in a competition who shows extraordinary talents and wins the competition, surprising other contestants and the audience,

a human dark horse, not known but talented

e.g.

Mat is the dark horse in our office; he never shows off but comes up with an answer for every problem.

When their popular sure-to-win candidate was found guilty of corruption, the party leaders brought in a dark horse, Mr James Norton whom nobody knew until then, to contest in the elections.

Everybody, including her own trainer and jockey, was surprised to see that the horse they thought was a certain loser came out as a dark horse, winning the jackpot!

For an item of news which shows us how we come across this phrase in our daily reading, please click here and click here, for an article on political dark horses, please click here, and for an item of news that shows us how this name is used in businesses, a publishers of comics in this context, please click here.
Note: ‘Dark horse’ is also used to refer to a little-known horse that unexpectedly wins a horse race.

 
Return to “horse — figures of speech” in Animals in Language.

About the Author:BC Kumar

BC Kumar, an English Language Teacher, taught in numerous countries including Ethiopia, Oman and India, shares his knowledge and passion for the English Language. Disclaimer: This is a free educational website and all content has been compiled by the author. All copyrights to images and videos belong to their respective owners.

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