▪ I. fleuret1, ‖ fleurette
(ˈflʊərɪt, flœˈrɛt)
[ad. F. fleurette, dim. of fleur flower.]
a. An ornament like a small flower. b. See quot. 1868.
| 1811 Pinkerton Petral. I. 428 The little fleurets, and other miniatures, which we admire in the tombs and buildings of that period. 1858 Sat. Rev. V. 425/2 The cymation, or wave-moulding, represented the sea;..the fleurette, the verdant plain. 1868 A. B. Alcott Tablets 22 The fruit..so arranged that the fleurets, or blossom ends, may look downwards. 1881 Terrien de la Couperie in Numism. Chron. Ser. iii. I. 345 Bearing on the obverse eight fleurets. |
▪ II. fleuret2 Fencing. ? Obs.
Also 7 fluret(t, floret.
[a. F. fleuret, f. fleur flower = It. fioretto, dim. of fiore flower; so called because the button at the point was compared to a flower-bud.]
A fencing-foil.
| a 1648 Ld. Herbert Life (1886) 71 The good fencing-masters..when they present a foil or fleuret to their scholars, tell him it hath two parts. 1674 Gov. Tongue vii. §9. 141 In such fencings jest hath proved earnest, and florets have turn'd to swords. 1691 Sir W. Hope Compl. Fencing-master (1697) 13 They see at every other Thrust their Flurett beat out of their Hand. 1885 E. Castle Schools of Fence xv. 246 The flexible fleuret could only be used when the play was restricted to the point. |
▪ III. † ˈfleuret3 Obs.
[a. F. fleuret ‘nom d'un ancien pas qui se composait d'un demicoupé et de deux pas marchés sur la pointe du pied’ (Littré) = It. fioretto: cf. prec.]
A step formerly used in dancing.
| 1677 Sedley Ant. & Cl. Prol., A brisk gallant..Does here and there in nimble fleurets pass. |