I've heard the phrase "wild horses won't keep me away", as is if wild horses were dragging me away, I wouldn't be kept from going where I was going.
Where does this come from?
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Sign up to join this communityI've heard the phrase "wild horses won't keep me away", as is if wild horses were dragging me away, I wouldn't be kept from going where I was going.
Where does this come from?
According the following sourse, it refers to a medieval torture:
- Nothing could induce or persuade me, as in Wild horses couldn't drag me to that nightclub. This idiom, always in negative form, is believed to have replaced wild horses couldn't draw it from me, referring to the medieval torture of using horses to stretch a prisoner and thereby force a confession. [First half of 1800s ]
(The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary)
Wild horses couldn't drag someone away (from something):
- Prov. Someone is determined to remain with something. Once Elaine starts playing a video game, wild horses can't drag her away from it. Jim was determined to remain fishing at the lake. Wild horses couldn't drag him away from it.
(McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002)
The expression is mainly an AmE one as shown in Ngram and is from the mid 19th century.
In reference to the Rolling stone song, "Horse" is a nickname for heroin. So i always thought either it means nothing could drag you away from your addiction, or in the case of marrianne faithful who went into a coma as a result of a heroin overdose, she meant that even heroin couldnt kill her.