The Collaborative International Dictionary
A cheval \A` che*val"\ [F., lit., on horseback.] Astride; with a part on each side; -- used specif. in designating the position of an army with the wings separated by some line of demarcation, as a river or road.
A position [`a] cheval on a river is not one which a
general willingly assumes.
--Swinton.
Usage examples of "a cheval".
Caroline and Mac stood side by side before a cheval mirror, the former in the process of fussing with some fastening on Mac's dress.
The only furniture was a coat rail for hanging clothes and a cheval mirror.
Stopping in front of a cheval mirror in one corner of the high-ceilinged room, Anna surveyed her trim figure in the smoky glass.
The Miss Bruces blushed crimson at seeing us only in our shirts, especially as one was seated on the pot de chambre, whilst the other was exhibiting her charms to my inquisitive cousins before a cheval glass.
It was a large room, fitted round with glass presses, furnished, among other things, with a cheval-glass and a business table, and looking out upon the court by three dusty windows barred with iron.
He placed the helmet upon his head and buckled the sword-belt about his waist, then he faced the king, behind whom was a cheval glass.
I left it open, and walked round a bare costume stand, into a corner behind a cheval glass.
It was a large room, fitted round with glass presses, furnished, among other things, with a cheval glass and a business table, and looking out upon the court by three dusty windows barred with iron.
Up jumped mademoiselle for the second time, and tripped across the room to a cheval-glass.
At its lower extremity a tall hedge of cactus reinforced the crumbling wall with a cheval de frise of bristling thorns.
There was a cheval-glass in her room and she couldn't help seeing that she looked well in her ruby dress.
Angela stood then to take a final check of her pale blue suit in a cheval glass.