Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A person knighted on some ground other than that of military service or distinction; a knight who has not known the hardships of the field. So Shakspere speaks of “a knight dubbed with unhacked rapier and on carpet consideration.”
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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I don't think his division benefited by such carpet-knight doings in the field.
LEE’S LIEUTENANTS DOUGLAS SOUTHALL FREEMAN 2001
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I don't think his division benefited by such carpet-knight doings in the field.
LEE’S LIEUTENANTS DOUGLAS SOUTHALL FREEMAN 2001
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The carpet-knight, the holiday ranger, the book-worm explorer, knows but little of the herculean work which has furnished for the world a practical knowledge of the western half of the North American continent.
The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself de Witt C. Peters
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He was no carpet-knight; he had the true adventurer's blood in his veins.
The Bibliotaph and Other People Leon H. Vincent
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His superstition is debasing and repellent, but works harm only in limited spheres, and it is counterbalanced by the fact that he had been a part of many events recounted and had held high governmental offices, enjoying a career which furnished him with standards by which to judge the likelihood of allegations regarding earlier periods of Rome, -- that, in a word, he was no mere carpet-knight of History.
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QUOTATION: Accustom him to everything, that he may not be a Sir Paris, a carpet-knight, 1 but a sinewy, hardy, and vigorous young man.
Quotations 1919
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"Body of God!" gasped Ercole, upon whose mind intruded a grotesque picture of such a company as he would assemble, being led by this mincing carpet-knight.
Love-at-Arms Rafael Sabatini 1912
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Such compounds are of course much used; but they are ugly when they are otiose; it might be worth while to talk of a war-famous brewer, or of a peace-famous general, just as we often have occasion to speak of a carpet-knight, but of a carpet-broom only if it is necessary to guard against mistake.
Neologisms. 1908
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Porticobello House, and I had solicited her to become a copartner with this unassuming self in the maziness of a waltz; but, not being the carpet-knight, and consequently treading the measure with too great frequency upon the toes of my fair auxiliary, she suggested a temporary withdrawal from circulation.
Baboo Jabberjee, B.A. F. Anstey 1895
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A valiant carpet-knight, skilled in all parlor exercises, great at whist or euchre, a dream of a dancer, unexcelled in Cakewalk or "coon" impersonations, for which he was in large social demand, Ellis had seen him kick an inoffensive negro out of his path and treat a poor-white man with scant courtesy.
she commented on the word carpet-knight
A derogatory term for a knight who achieved more on the floor of a lady's boudoir than in battle; the Knights of the Carpet, so called to distinguish them from those who served in battle.
July 11, 2008