horsepower

Beginner 💻 Tech / IT

Definition

A delightfully archaic unit of measurement that literally compares your engine to how many horses it would take to do the same work. Invented by James Watt to market his steam engines (seriously), one horsepower equals about 746 watts, though the metric version differs just to keep things confusing. Car bros still use this to measure their vehicle's masculinity.

Example Usage

Derek wouldn't stop bragging that his new sports car had 450 horsepower, as if we were all supposed to visualize 450 horses crammed under the hood.

Source: Engineering terminology via Free Dictionary API

Related Terms

Translate This Term

See “horsepower” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator