cabriole

[ kab-ree-ohl; French ka-bree-awl ]

noun

, plural cab·ri·oles [kab, -ree-ohlz, k, a, -b, r, ee-, awl].

1. Furniture. a curved, tapering leg curving outward at the top and inward farther down so as to end in a round pad, the semblance of an animal's paw, or some other feature: used especially in the first half of the 18th century.
2. Ballet. a leap in which one leg is raised in the air and the other is brought up to beat against it.

cabriole

/ ˈkæbrɪˌəʊl /

noun

1. Also calledcabriole leg a type of furniture leg, popular in the first half of the 18th century, in which an upper convex curve descends tapering to a concave curve
2. ballet a leap in the air with one leg outstretched and the other beating against it

Word History and Origins

Origin of cabriole¹

1775–85; < French: leap, caper; so called because modeled on leg of a capering animal ( capriole ); b by influence of cabri kid (≪ Old Provençal ) and kindred words

Word History and Origins

Origin of cabriole¹

C18: from French, from cabrioler to caper; from its being based on the leg of a capering animal; see cabriolet

Example Sentences

The New York dealers Bernard & S. Dean Levy have brought a Chippendale side chair, made in Boston circa 1770, with telltale cabriole legs in the shape of birds’ claws.

From New York Times

Here he seems to be doing a cabriole back, beating his legs in the air behind him.

From The New Yorker

‘The Danish dining table with cabriole legs would make a strict modernist hyperventilate.’

From Wall Street Journal

Eclectic elements that flout midcentury design conventions: a 1930s cabinet from the Cotswold in England, and a Danish dining table with comely cabriole legs that would make a strict modernist hyperventilate.

From Wall Street Journal

Set on cabriole legs, the piece also reads feminine.

From Wall Street Journal