Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Sports An arena for equestrian shows.
  • noun An open-air stadium with an oval course for horse and chariot races in ancient Greece and Rome.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In classical antiquity, a place, more or less embellished by art, in which horse-races and chariot-races were run and horses were exercised: sometimes applied to a modern circus.
  • noun In sporting slang, a race or other athletic contest in which it is arranged beforehand that a certain contestant shall win; a mock or fraudulent race.
  • To conduct races, equestrian, pedestrian, or aquatic, or other contests, in which the result is prearranged by collusion between the managers and the contestants, in order to make gain through betting, etc.: in allusion to the prearranged or perfunctory races in a hippodrome or circus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb (Sports), Slang, U. S. To arrange contests with predetermined winners.
  • noun (Gr. Antiq.) A place set apart for equestrian and chariot races.
  • noun An arena for equestrian performances; a circus.
  • noun (Sports), Slang, U. S. A fraudulent contest with a predetermined winner.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A horse racing course.
  • verb baseball To stage a baseball game to suit gamblers.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a stadium for horse shows or horse races

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French ypodrome, from Latin hippodromos, from Greek : hippos, horse; see ekwo- in Indo-European roots + dromos, racecourse.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin hippodromos. From Ancient Greek ἱππόδρομος, from ἵππος (hippos, "horse") + δρόμος (drómos, "course").

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Examples

  • Horses were sometimes introduced, but then the hippodrome was the course.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 19, May, 1859 Various

  • In his gardens and chariot-racing center, called the hippodrome, almost a thousand people were brutally murdered.

    Raw Story 2009

  • That was the only time he penned me, -- three days of it, -- but after that the hippodrome never stopped.

    A RELIC OF THE PLIOCENE 2010

  • A hippodrome, with sun, moon, and stars to referee!

    A RELIC OF THE PLIOCENE 2010

  • Through a temple the walkway led to a vast hippodrome.

    A Privilege to Die Thanassis Cambanis 2010

  • The adventurer, armed only with a hand-ax, trails the beast and traps it in a small valley like a hippodrome, perhaps five miles around, and runs the beast for two months, not allowing it to eat, drink or sleep, until it "fell to whimpering and crying like a baby."

    “Why this longing for life? It is a game which no man wins.” 2008

  • This delightful anthology of prose and poetry, mostly homegrown but with contributions from Pliny on the magnificence of the box hedges cut into a thousand animal shapes in his Tuscan garden (with hippodrome), the 9th-century Frankish monk Strabo on the cultivation of dung heaps, and Thomas Jefferson on his ever-expanding vegetable patch, is the perfect companion for weeding, dead-heading, pricking out and mulching.

    Back to nature 2010

  • Read it properly to revel (or reveal for the slow of speech) in its secrets and secrete properly your resigns on the public amphitheater floor, run in the hippodrome your best horses and sail your vessels (vassals?) under the loving eye of the goddess.

    A Mess 2010

  • But Hezbollah fired so many volleys of rockets from the nearby orchards that it feared reprisal bombings against the crowd that would gather to bury the dead in the open field by the ancient hippodrome.

    A Privilege to Die Thanassis Cambanis 2010

  • It's a view from the breakfast room of the Hotel Spectra, looking across the old Roman hippodrome to the Mosque of Sultanahmet, better known over here as the Blue Mosque.

    Archive 2009-05-01 Walter Jon Williams 2009

Comments

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  • anyone else think Hungry Hungry Hippos?

    February 20, 2007

  • Yes.

    Are we the same age?

    February 21, 2007

  • Um...noooooo. But I'm probably too old. ;-)

    February 21, 2007

  • I'm 24. Is it inappropriate asking a lady her age if it's on the internet?

    February 21, 2007

  • I'm not 24. I'll leave it at that. :) "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog."

    February 21, 2007

  • Funny, I'm also 24. And yes, it is is impolite to ask a lady her age, even on the internet. Of course, not all women are ladies...

    February 21, 2007

  • Seanahan, that's a bit harsh--or am I taking you the wrong way? Seems to me that c_b was just asking whether people were of the same age range here. I'm sure no offense was intended.

    February 21, 2007

  • *writes down AZ's age in his stalker notebook*

    *whistles innocently*

    February 21, 2007

  • Uselessness, I'm 5'11, have piercing eyeballs and clean fingernails. I enjoy listing, long walks on the beach, loud music, and teasing internet stalkers.

    February 21, 2007

  • Good heavens, Abraxas--have you seen a doctor about those eyeballs?

    February 21, 2007