| 释义 |
‖ cheval|ʃəvɑl, -æ-|
[F. cheval horse (= Pr. cavalh, Cat. caball, Sp. caballo, Pg. cavalho, It. cavallo):—L. caball-us pack-horse, nag.]
Used in comb. (as in cheval-de-frise, cheval-glass), and in some Fr. phrases, as à cheval ‘on horseback’, ‘with one foot on each side’; in military phraseol. ‘in command of two roads or lines of communication’; also transf.; spec. in gambling, applied to a stake risked equally on two chances. (Formerly somewhat naturalized as chival q.v.)
1609–38Heywood Rape Lucrece Wks. 1874 V. 209 Then mount Chevall Brutus this night take you the charge of the army. 1832C. MacFarlane Banditti I. i. 22 It is so easy for the criminals to evade pursuit, by constantly keeping themselves (to use a military phrase) à cheval on the line of demarcation of the two countries, and when pursuit is hot in the one, by retreating into the other. 187.Times (O.), The Western Powers will assuredly never permit Russia to place herself à cheval between the Ottoman Empire and Persia. 1881T. Hardy Laodicean II. iv. 258 Leaving off backing numbers en plein, he laid his venture upon two columns à cheval. 1919T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 293 If we pay half the Hejaz expenses direct to Mecca, and another share direct to the Government of Syria, we seem reasonably à cheval upon all possible contingencies. 1931Hartmann Diary 29 Aug. in P. Bauer Kanchenjunga (1955) iii. v. 150, I was able to proceed along the narrow edge à cheval. 1951E. Coxhead One Green Bottle vi. 161 Alec..had climbed out on to the dizzy crest of the ridge... The thin part in the middle was passed by the daughter à cheval. |