TO BE (or GET) ON (or RIDE) THE HIGH HORSE, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To give oneself airs; to stand on one’s dignity; to take offence. [Fr. monter sur ses grands chevaux. The simile is common to most languages.]
1716. ADDISON, The Free-holder, No. 22, 5 March. He told me, he did not know what Travelling was good for, but to teach a Man to RIDE THE GREAT HORSE, to jabber French, and to talk against Passive-Obedience.
1836. MARRYAT, Mr. Midshipman Easy, xii. 59. ‘He said he was determined to uphold the service, and then he knocked me down—and when I got up again, he told me that I could stand a little more—and then he took out his colt, and said he was determined to RIDE THE HIGH HORSE—and that there should be no Equality Jack in future.’
1842. The Comic Almanack, Sept., p. 37, ‘Rent Day—Landlords’ levée.’
| Yet Dublin deems the foul extortion fair, | |
| And swears that, as he’s RIDDEN THE HIGH HORSE | |
| So long and well, she now will make him Mayor. |
1864. Times, 5 July. Mr. Gladstone in the Dano-German Debate. The right hon. gentleman then GOT ON what I may call HIS HIGH HORSE, and he would not give us the slightest opinion upon any matter of substantive policy, because that, he said, would be accepting office upon conditions.
1868. WILKIE COLLINS, The Moonstone, 2nd Period, 3rd Narr., ch. ii. Miss Rachael has her faults—‘I’ve never denied it,’ he began. ‘And RIDING THE HIGH HORSE now and then is one of them.’
