Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Archaic A saddle horse, especially one for a woman to ride.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A saddle-horse; an ordinary riding-horse, as distinguished from a war-horse; especially, a woman's saddle-horse.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A saddle horse for the road, or for state occasions, as distinguished from a war horse.
- n. A small saddle horse for ladies.
WordNet 3.0
- n. especially a light saddle horse for a woman
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French palefrei, from Medieval Latin palafrēdus, alteration of Late Latin paraverēdus, post horse for secondary routes, extra horse : Greek para, extra, beyond; see per1 in Indo-European roots + Latin verēdus, post horse (of Celtic origin; see reidh- in Indo-European roots).
Examples
“Then he jumps on the maned palfrey, which is now ready for inspection.”
“According to the dictionary that comes with Mac OS X 10.5, a "palfrey" is "a docile horse used for ordinary riding.”
“Lunete mounts the palfrey which is brought without delay, and, as they ride, she tells her how she had been accused and charged with treason, and how the pyre was already kindled upon which she was to be laid, and how he had come to help her in just the moment of her need.”
“Kathie and the twins and Alan have the other corner with their doll's house, a tail-less hobby horse, known both as the "palfrey" and the”
“She had been even prettier than he had thought her yesterday, on her silver-roan, long-tailed 'palfrey'; and it seemed to him, self-critical in the brumous October gloaming and the outskirts of London, that only his boots had shone throughout their two-hour companionship.”
“The unicorn sometimes paced next to the palfrey, and sometimes not.”
“She rode a nervous oat-colored palfrey that had no name, and led the second horse, a blind and almost deaf ancient who long ago had been called Rinaldo and was now simply Rin.”
“Jess halted her palfrey as they came to a choice of ways.”
“The guards saw her coming, and possibly recognized the palfrey.”
“The palfrey shied as Jess swung around and reached for her sword.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘palfrey’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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A Song of Ice and Fire
Vocabulary from the epic fantasy series by George R. R. Martin!
destrier, wroth, garron, portcullis, craven, lickspittle, palfrey, ermine, surcoat, brigandine, doublet, deign and 7 more...
bilby "And so he fell on sleep; and half waking and sleeping he saw come by him two palfreys all fair and white, the which bare a litter, therein lying a sick knight."
- Thomas Malory, 'The Holy Grail'. Sep 8, 2009
brtom "Bloom holds up his right hand on which sparkles the Koh-i-Noor diamond. His palfrey neighs. " Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Dec 31, 2007