Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic,dated)One whoreadilyperforms hard work or whovoluntarilytoleratesanadversesituation.1863November 10, “Gen. Sherman's Column”, inNew York Times, retrieved12 February 2014:[A]fter a good deal of discussion (some of it angry) among the Major-Generals, it was settled as such things are everywhere—thewilling horse(which SHERMAN always is) getting the work to do.1869,R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, “FEEDING OF THE PIGS”, inLorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor.[…], volume II, London:Sampson Low, Son, & Marston,[…],→OCLC,pages57–58:[S]he said to me as quietly as a maiden might ask one to carry a glove, "Jan Ridd, carr thic[sic]thing for me." So I carried it for her, without any words; wondering what she was up to next, and whether she had ever heard of being too hard on thewilling horse.1878,Robert Louis Stevenson, “Down the Oise: To Moy”, inAn Inland Voyage, London:C[harles]Kegan Paul & Co.,[…],→OCLC,page141:Finding us easy in our ways, he[…]told me a cock-and-bull story with the moral of another five francs for the narrator. The thing was palpably absurd; but I paid up, and at once dropped all friendliness of manner, and kept him in his place as an inferior with freezing British dignity. He saw in a moment that he had gone too far, and killed awilling horse; his face fell; I am sure he would have refunded if he could only have thought of a decent pretext.1914,William MacLeod Raine, chapter 10, inA Daughter of the Dons:"When he hears of it he'll be more anxious than ever to fight." / Valencia nodded. "A spur to awilling horse."1999February 18, Philip D. Delnon, “Education letter: Exhausted, underpaid: and that's a good day”, inThe Independent, London, retrieved12 February 2014:There is certainly the need to reward performance and offer incentives for success, but flogging awilling horseis not the way to do it.
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