(straight) from the horse's mouth
From the original or most reliable source. A: "Is our test really getting rescheduled?" B: "Yep, our teacher was ahead of me in the lunch line, so I heard it straight from the horse's mouth." I swear, I heard it straight from the horse's mouth! Mom really said we can have McDonald's for dinner tonight! No, until I hear it from the horse's mouth, I refuse to believe that Bill kissed Kelly at the dance.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
straight from the horse’s mouth
mod. directly from the source, not just a horse. (As if a racehorse were giving racing tips.) This came straight from the horse’s mouth. It’s Zeerocks Copy in the sixth race.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
from the horse's mouth, straight
From the best authority. The analogy here is to examining a horse’s teeth, which reveal its age with some accuracy. Although this fact has been known for centuries (and indeed gave rise to the adage, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, dating from the fifth century), the expression dates only from the 1920s. “I have it straight from the mouth of a horse,” wrote Christopher Morley (Kitty Foyle, 1939).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer