Log in or Sign up
  1. cheval-de-frise love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. An obstacle composed of barbed wire or spikes attached to a wooden frame, used to block enemy advancement.
  2. n. An obstacle made of jagged glass or spikes set into masonry on top of a wall.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Same as chevaux-de-frise.
  2. n. A kind of trimming in a pattern of radiating and crossing straight, lines.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Mil.) A piece of timber or an iron barrel traversed with iron-pointed spikes or spears, five or six feet long, used to defend a passage, stop a breach, or impede the advance of cavalry, etc.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. defensive structure consisting of a movable obstacle composed of barbed wire or spikes attached to a wooden frame; used to obstruct cavalry

Etymologies

  1. French, Frisian horse (from its use in Friesland to compensate for a lack of cavalry) : cheval, horse + de, of + Frise, Friesland. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “During the floods, however, this cheval-de-frise of boulders must all be under water, and probably impassable.”

    Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo

  • “He swung his sword at the cheval-de-frise and staggered sideways as a cobblestone hit his skull.”

    Sharpe's Siege

  • “Harper, Frederickson, and a dozen Riflemen were crouching high on the breach, just behind the cheval-de-frise.”

    Sharpe's Siege

  • “Harper waited with a squad of men beside a cheval-de-frise made from a scorched beam to which had been lashed and nailed fifty captured French bayonets.”

    Sharpe's Siege

  • “Other men, sobbing and struggling, had been forced on to the cheval-de-frise that now lay canted on the breach's inner face.”

    Sharpe's Siege

  • “The cheval-de-frise was destroyed for fifty yards.”

    History of Kershaw's Brigade

  • “Up to this time the columns of _The Lawrence_ had been flooded with communications couched in the style of the oration against Catiline, demanding to know how long the supine Lawrenceville boy would bear in silence the return of his shirt with added entrances and exits, and collars that enclosed the neck with a cheval-de-frise.”

    The Varmint

  • “Palisades the depth of two spruce logs ran across the front of the {312} rough barricade, loopholed for musketry, and protected by a sort of cheval-de-frise of brushwood and spines.”

    Vikings of the Pacific The Adventures of the Explorers who Came from the West, Eastward

  • “A high wall inclosed it, and on the top of this wall ran a miniature cheval-de-frise of iron.”

    The Grey Cloak

  • “It was only when the Hôtel de Périgny loomed before him, with its bleak walls and sinister cheval-de-frise, that his sense of locality revived.”

    The Grey Cloak

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘cheval-de-frise’.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

Tweets

Looking for tweets for cheval-de-frise.

‘cheval-de-frise’ has been looked up 948 times, added to 6 lists, commented on 2 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.