a horse apiece

English

Phrase

a horse apiece

  1. (somewhat dated) Synonym of six of one, half a dozen of the other
    • 1781, Edmund Burke (contributor), The Annual Register, Or, A View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1778, The Second Edition, page 159:
      The Maior promiſed Sir John Horner and myſelf a horſe apiece, when we went to London to the parliament, which we accepted of; and we talked about the ſynod and eccleſiaſtical diſmiſſions.
    • 1894, J. Masterman, A Devoted Couple, A Novel, page 350:
      "Surely Marleon is rich enough to keep them a horse apiece."
    • 1992, David Lavender, Let Me Be Free, The Nez Perce Tragedy, page 104:
      Spalding was furious. Feeling that his vision of launching a great cattle industry among the Nez Perces had been betrayed, he sentenced each Indian to a whipping and fined them a horse apiece, to be delivered to the mission.
    • 1982, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations, Alternatives for Natural Resource Management Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, Ninety-seventh Congress, Second Session, June 1, 1982, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, page 10:
      That's how we got started. There was a Federal plan started at the same time we started. I went through it. It was a preliminary plan. Some of the ideas in that book I didn't like; but then, on the other hand, when they saw plan there were a few ideas they didn't like either. So, it's a horse apiece.
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