cheval-de-frise
a portable obstacle, usually a sawhorse, covered with projecting spikes or barbed wire, for military use in closing a passage, breaking in a defensive wall, etc.
Origin of cheval-de-frise
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use cheval-de-frise in a sentence
Whence also cheval de frise, a contrivance used by the Frieslanders against cavalry.
The Romance of Words (4th ed.) | Ernest WeekleyThe cheval de frise had given way under the strain upon it, and the rope had dropped on to the coping of the wall itself.
In Strange Company | Guy BoothbyA cheval-de-frise consists of a horizontal piece of timber armed with wooden or iron lances, which project some eight or ten feet.
Elements of Military Art and Science | Henry Wager HalleckThese must be sharpened, and as the walls are built, fixed among the stones so as to make a cheval-de-frise.
Won by the Sword | G.A. HentyBut between the hunters and their fallen quarry reared a cheval de frise of flame and fallen timber impossible to cross.
The Bell-Ringer of Angel's and Other Stories | Bret Harte
British Dictionary definitions for cheval-de-frise
/ (ʃəˌvældəˈfriːz) /
a portable barrier of spikes, sword blades, etc, used to obstruct the passage of cavalry
a row of spikes or broken glass set as an obstacle on top of a wall
Origin of cheval-de-frise
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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