gambade
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun A spatterdash or gaiter for covering the leg when riding or walking in muddy roads.
- noun plural Boots fixed to the saddle of a horseman, instead of stirrups.
- noun The leap of a horse.
Examples
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A more awkward situation could hardly be imagined than that of a privy councillor forced to listen to and reply to his sovereign, while each fresh gambade of his unmanageable horse placed him in a new and more precarious attitude — his violet robe flying loose in every direction, and nothing securing him from an instant and perilous fall save the depth of the saddle, and its height before and behind.
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As, under the influence of these joyous recollections, he gave his horse the spur, and made him execute a gambade, he instantly incurred the censure of his grave neighbour, who hinted to him to keep the pace, and move quietly and in order, unless he wished such notice to be taken of his eccentric movements as was likely to be very displeasing to him.
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This chieftain was, as right and reason craved, the first to enter the lists, and passing the Gallery at the head of his myrmidons, kissed the hilt of his sword to the Queen, and executed at the same time a gambade, the like whereof had never been practised by two-legged hobby-horse.
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If the book does sometimes in a fashion "hop forty paces in the public street," and at others gambade in a less decorous fashion even than hopping, it is also Cleopatresque in its absolute freedom from staleness and from tedium.
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800
Note
The word 'gambade' comes from an Italian word meaning 'leg' and may be influenced by the French word 'gambade', a gambol.
