outrider
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English outridere.
Noun
[edit]outrider (plural outriders)
- A guide or escort, especially one who rides in advance.
- 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 91:
- Then they went from farmhouse to farmhouse, two little girls walking at the head of the procession as bridesmaids, and six or eight outriders galloping ahead on hobby-horses to announce their coming.
- One who rides out on horseback to inspect a ranch etc.
- (figurative) A forerunner.
- Synonyms: precursor, harbinger, trailblazer
- 2001 November 2, “Outrider for a new project”, in BBC News[1]:
- The Winchester MP is something of an outrider for a new project now: moving his party into the space vacated by the Conservative shift to the right under Iain Duncan Smith.