on your high horse
3
8.6
- idiom
- Offensive
:
ponerse en plan superior
- You always act like you're on your high horse, looking down on everyone else.
- get on your high horse
And how dare you get on your high horse and tell anybody else how they should feel about this.
- And how dare you get on your high horse and tell anybody else how they should feel about this.
Examples
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What matters is you waltzing in on your high horse with this bit of obviousness:
Blog text (15) -
You sit on your high horse looking down on me.
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The strong dominate the weak look at you sitting on your high horse.
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Don't get on your high horse with me!
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Don't get on your high horse Redwood.
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" Well, don't get on your high horse, " Jerri says.
Fiction book (2002) -
I'd say, shame you didn't take the suggestion on board rather than getting on your high horse about which generation is the greenest.
Blog text (19) -
"Before I allow you to stand somewhere on your high horse and point a finger back down at me, I'm going to give you a big stiff f**k you," T.I. said to the crowd before introducing his album.
Blog text (32) -
Becky was up on her high horse about the little boy eating sugar, so the three of them waited until Ryan was asleep to open the cabinet where they'd always kept candy.
Fiction book (2000) -
For the rest of you, those pointing fingers saying she's judging people and she's on her high horse, and blah blah blah, I have an illustration I want you to think about.
Blog text (13)
Synonyms
260
4.5
Behaving as if you are more important or better than other people
55
7.8
Thinking you are better than other people about right and wrong and judging them
23
8.5
Acting as if you are morally better than other people
20
8.2
Acting as if you are better than other people
14
8.1
Acting proud and looking down on other people
5
9.9
Someone who acts proud and shows they feel better than others
5
8.7
Acting as if morally better than other people
4
8.6
Claiming to be more important or successful than you are
3
8.1
Using power in a rude way that ignores other people's views
2
9.8
Too much pride and confidence that makes people dislike you
1
8.0
Acting very proud and treating others as unimportant
Showing off and acting more important than others
Acting more confident and important than you really are
Antonyms
How Arrogant
14
8.1
- Offensive
3
8.6
13
5.8
260
4.5
81
2.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The image of being 'on' a 'high' horse gives a partial cue—'high' suggests superiority and 'on a horse' implies an elevated position—so a learner might infer some sense of elevated status. However, the specific pragmatic meaning 'acting self-righteous or arrogant' is metaphorical and idiomatic rather than fully compositional, so it is not reliably derivable by a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
On your high horse comes from a simple picture: important people used to ride tall horses so they could look down on everyone. One popular story says being literally on a high horse made you seem proud and above others, so today the phrase means 'acting superior or judging others'.