Crossword clues for curvet
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Curvet \Cur"vet\ (k[^u]r"v?t or k[^u]r-v?t"; 277), n. [OE. corvet, It.corvetta: cf. F. courbette. See Curve, and cf. Corvetto.]
(Man.) A particular leap of a horse, when he raises both his fore legs at once, equally advanced, and, as his fore legs are falling, raises his hind legs, so that all his legs are in the air at once.
A prank; a frolic.
Curvet \Cur"vet\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Curveted or -vetted; p. pr. & vb. n. Curveting or -vetting.] [Cf. It. corvettare. See Curvet, n.]
To make a curvet; to leap; to bound. ``Oft and high he did curvet.''
--Drayton.To leap and frisk; to frolic.
--Shak.
Curvet \Cur"vet\, v. t.
To cause to curvet.
--Landor.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A particular leap of a horse, when he raises both forelegs at once, equally advanced, and, as his forelegs are falling, raises his hind legs, so that all his legs are in the air at once. 2 A prank; a frolic. vb. (context of a horse English) To leap about, frolic.
WordNet
n. a light leap by a horse in which both hind legs leave the ground before the forelegs come down [syn: vaulting]
v. perform a leap where both hind legs come off the ground, of a horse
[also: curvetting, curvetted]
Usage examples of "curvet".
There enters on horseback a fair woman, whose rich brown curls stream flutteringly in the breeze, and whose long blue habit flaps against the flank of her curvetting white mare.
The earl continued some little distance by the side of the royal family, complimenting them all with courteous speeches, his horse curveting and caracoling, but being managed with great grace and dexterity, leaving the grandees and the people at large not more filled with admiration at the strangeness and magnificence of his state than at the excellence of his horsemanship.
He was up and mounted in a moment and Fireheel pranced and curvetted happily.
The cream stallion pranced and curvetted, sometimes mincing sideways under the bright flutter of the Haldane banner Charlan carried.
They wheeled and whirled and curvetted everywhere, sounding their electric voices.
For half a minute the mammoth curvetted ponderously, while his trunk curled up and over to touch the man, as though not quite sure now how he felt about the proceedings.
Down in the valley Amalric had stiffened in his saddle when he saw that wild horseman curvetting and caracoling on the slopes while he brandished that blood-stained serpent-banner.
There were sentries posted to keep the ground for the troops, and servants on the batteries keeping places for the ladies, and sergeants running to and fro, with vellum-covered books under their arms, and Colonel Bulder, in full military uniform, on horseback, galloping first to one place and then to another, and backing his horse among the people, and prancing, and curvetting, and shouting in a most alarming manner, and making himself very hoarse in the voice, and very red in the face, without any assignable cause or reason whatever.
Excited by the proximity of other eldritch steeds, the nygel caracoled, curvetted.
His relief, therefore, when Archie curveted into his private room and announced that he had succeeded was great.
He curveted towards their table, beaming and erect, his head up, his gaze level, and his chest expanded, for all the world as if he had been reading the hints in "The Personality That Wins.
The car jumped off from the rail and curveted on her two wheels along the metal strip in the road, angled out, and joined the main lane, picking up speed fast, running empty.
Her prow curveted as it were the neck of a stallion, and a great wave of dark blue water seethed in her wake.
Already, while it was early, the benches were beginning to fill with people of quality, who kept constantly arriving in little carts or upon palfreys that curveted gaily to the merry tinkle of silver bells at bridle reins.
Firelily, under him, seemed sexually aroused, she curveted and frolicked so about the line of march, covering five miles to the prisoners' one.