cheval-de-frise
Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- noun A piece of timber or an iron barrel traversed with iron-pointed spikes or spears, five or six feet long, used to defend a passage, stop a breach, or impede the advance of cavalry, etc.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun A kind of trimming in a pattern of radiating and crossing straight, lines.
Examples
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During the floods, however, this cheval-de-frise of boulders must all be under water, and probably impassable.
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Up to this time the columns of The Lawrence had been flooded with communications couched in the style of the oration against Catiline, demanding to know how long the supine Lawrenceville boy would bear in silence the return of his shirt with added entrances and exits, and collars that enclosed the neck with a cheval-de-frise.
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It was only when the Hotel de Perigny loomed before him, with its bleak walls and sinister cheval-de-frise, that his sense of locality revived.
Note
This phrase translates from the French as 'Frisian horse.'
