workhorse

See also: work horse

English

From Middle English werkehorse, equivalent to work +‎ horse.

workhorse (plural workhorses)

A horse used primarily for manual labor; a draft horse.
Synonyms: (Britain, dialectal, one sense) aver, draft horse
(by extension) Someone or something that does a lot of work; something or someone who works consistently or regularly.
Those old machines are not very glamorous, but even 20 years after their introduction, they are still the workhorses of the industry.
- 2018 October 15, Phil McNulty, “Spain 2-3 England”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:
  Captain Harry Kane was the workhorse and creator, while Sterling and Rashford provided the finishing flourishes that put England in dreamland at the interval.
- 2023 November 1, “Network News: Strong industry interest as Positive Traction launches '08e'”, in RAIL, number 995, page 18:
  "Class 08s have been the workhorses of ports, distribution centres and depots across Britain's railway for more than 60 years," said Positive Traction Director Alistair Gregory.

horse used primarily for work

anyone that does a lot of work

Danish: arbejdshest c
Dutch: werkpaard (nl) n
Finnish: työjuhta
French: bourreau de travail (fr)
German: Arbeitstier (de) n
Icelandic: (to be a real workhorse) víkingur til vinnu m, (to be a real workhorse) hamhleypa til vinnu m
Norwegian:
Bokmål: arbeidshest m

Nynorsk: arbeidshest m
Polish: wół roboczy m (literally “labor bullock”)
Russian: ломова́я ло́шадь (ru) f (lomovája lóšadʹ), стаха́новец (ru) m (staxánovec) (Stakhanovite)
Spanish: chambeador m, chambero m