▪ I. capriole, n.
(ˈkæprɪəʊl)
Also 6 capreall, 7 capreol, caprioll(e, (caprel), 7–8 capriol.
[a. F. capriole (now cabriole) ‘a caper’, or ad. It. capriola ‘a fawn, a kid, a young hind; also, a capriole or caper in dancing, also a Capriole or Goat's leap that cunning riders teach their horses’ (Florio), dim. of capra she-goat:—L. capra: cf. caprea, capreolus, applied to wild goats, etc.]
1. A leap or caper, as in dancing.
| 1594 Davies Orchestra in Arb. Garner V. 40 With lofty turns and caprioles in the air. 1630 B. Jonson Chloridia Wks. (1692) 657/2 Ixion..does nothing but cut capreols, fetch friskals, and lead lavoltaes with the Lamiæ. 1760 Foote Minor i. (1781) 15 Italy [has] equip'd him with capriols and cantatas. 1832–4 De Quincey Caesars (1862) IX. 107 All possible evolutions of caprioles and pirouettes. |
| fig. 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie iii. ii. 225 His heeles doe caper..His very soule, his intellectual Is nothing but a mincing capreall. a 1670 Hacket Cent. Serm. (1675) 326 In the Capreols of our own fancy. 1852 Hawthorne Blithedale Rom. ix, Permitting no caprioles of fancy. |
2. Horsemanship. A high leap made by a horse without advancing, the hind legs being jerked out together at the height of the leap.
| c 1605 Montgomerie Flyting 509 While ky kest caprels behind with their heeles. 1617 Markham Caval. ii. 239 That sault which..Italians call Caprioll, and wee heere in England the Goates leape. a 1634 Randolph Poems, Thy Pegasus, in his admir'd careere Curvets no capreols of nonsence here. 1814 Scott Wav. viii, The occasional caprioles which his charger exhibited. 1884 E. L. Anderson Horsemanship ii. xvii. 153 The Capriole, the most vigorous of all the school movements. |
3. A kind of head-dress worn by ladies.
| 1756 Connoisseur No. 112 (1774) IV. 58 The milliner told me..that the name of this ornament..was a Capriole or Cabriole. 1864 in Webster. |
▪ II. capriole, v.
(ˈkæprɪəʊl)
[f. prec. n., or directly from It. capriolare ‘to caper, to capriole’ (Florio).]
intr. To leap, skip, caper. Also said of horses (and their riders); and fig.
| 1580 Sidney, etc. Ps. cxiv. (R.) Hillocks, why capreold ye, as wanton by their dammes We capreoll see the lusty lambs. 1690 Crowne Eng. Frier iii. 20 If you had been starv'd you wou'd not have caprioll'd with your witty conceits. 1788 Dibdin Mus. Tour xc. 365 Leap, skip, and pound would poor Ap Hugh, And capriole, and caper too. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1857) I. i. vii. x. 220 Rascality, caprioling on horses from the Royal Stud. |
Hence capriˈoling vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1628 Sir R. Le Grys tr. Barclay's Argenis 41 To have their stables full..of capreoling Horses. 1821 De Quincey Wks. (1863) XIII. 121 The wild..dancing, waltzing, caprioling..of the chamois. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet let. xii, In the midst of her exuberant caprioling. |
▪ III. capriole
obs. var. of capreole.