horse-play—rough or boisterous behavior, passing the bounds of propriety:
- Dryden’s best comic attempts were but heavy horse-play.
play the horses—bet on horserace results:
- No wonder his wife is penniless; he is always playing the horses and losing his money.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase horse around—(also: horse about) behave in a rough and noisy manner:
- Shereth yelled at us to quit horsing around and finish up the car washing.