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horse latitudes

noun

Etymology

Various theories; probably from a sailors' ritual of parading a straw-stuffed effigy of a horse around the deck before throwing it overboard.

Definitions

  1. The warm, subtropical bands which encircle the globe between approximately 30 and 35…

    The warm, subtropical bands which encircle the globe between approximately 30 and 35 degrees both north and south of the Equator, characterized by high atmospheric pressure and dry variable winds ranging from calm to light.

    • The north boundary of Zone A is a belt of high barometric pressure known to many generations of seafaring men as the "Horse Latitudes." Here air currents are divergent and there is relatively low humidity.
    • The 27,000-mile course starts in November in the Bay of Biscay on the coast of France; points south through the horse latitudes and doldrums, past Africa to the bottom of the world; rounds Cape Horn; then turns north to home.

  2. A condition of relative inactivity, calm, or lethargy.

    • After months in the horse latitudes, retail and auto sales are scudding along at a brisk pace.
    • These are the horse latitudes of fashion, when it's O.K. not to think about clothes, if only for 15 minutes.
    • The Senate version of the House measure now bobs quietly in the horse latitudes of legislative inaction.

  3. Alternative form of horse latitudes.

The neighborhood

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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA