Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The peg to which a string of a violin, guitar, or other stringed instrument is attached.
- noun A meaningless or redundant syllable, word, or phrase used to complete a verse or round off a period.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a word whose only function is to make a sentence metrically balanced
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Je me fais juste des idees, au meme niveau qu'un enfant est persuadé quil faut allumer la lumiere avant de poser le pied hors de son lit sinon une main va t'attraper la cheville! mais jamais il ne verra 'le loup' (abus de scary movie pardon - _ -)
pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2006
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Pas pour moi la gendarmerie, j'ai une jambe d'un centimetre plus courte que l'autre, mes rotules sont plus flottantes que mes cotes, mes ligament croisés, dechirés tout ce que vous voulez, mon entorse chronique a la cheville droite a cause d'un hopital qui vous soigne une fracture avec une bande velcro et de la pommade, ma narco, ma scoliose, mes problemes de vue, mon oreille sourde.
pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2006
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The genius of prose rejects the cheville no less emphatically than the laws of verse; and the cheville, I should perhaps explain to some of my readers, is any meaningless or very watered phrase employed to strike a balance in the sound.
Essays in the Art of Writing Robert Louis Stevenson 1872
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He showed her the rabbit's foot he used to brush off any flecks of gold left on the _cheville_ and the leather he kept on his lap to catch any gold that fell.
L'Assommoir ��mile Zola 1871
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Then, when he had soldered about a hundred links he returned once more to his minute work, propping his hands against the edge of the _cheville_, a small piece of board which the friction of his hands had polished.
L'Assommoir ��mile Zola 1871
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* PROJET: Une salamandre (pour mes origines) sur le haut de la nuque, un dragon imperial sur la cheville (pour la culture asiatique, une de mes passions), un papillon sur la hanche droite (pour l'ambiguité), un code barre derriere l'oreille droite (pur produit de consommation) et des ailes d'ange sur les omoplates (pour l'innocence) 30.
pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2008
sionnach commented on the word cheville
a word or expression whose only function is to fill a metrical gap in a verse or to balance a sentence.
May 12, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word cheville
"Chaucer used chevilles with shameless frequency, often plugging his lines with 'eek', 'for sothe', 'ywis', 'I gesse', 'I trowe', and similar interjections" (Conc. Oxford Dict. Lit. Terms).
Well, of course he did - Its difficult to maintain the rhyme royal, a.k.a. Chaucerian stanza in long works, I trowe.
September 18, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word cheville
French word for "plug" by the way.
September 19, 2009
qms commented on the word cheville
To achieve rhetorical symmetry
And make the rhyme or rhythm agree,
A writer can tweak
A line that is weak
By padding with a bit of cheville.
April 28, 2014