cabriole
Americannoun
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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.
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Ballet. a leap in which one leg is raised in the air and the other is brought up to beat against it.
noun
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Also called: cabriole 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
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ballet a leap in the air with one leg outstretched and the other beating against it
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cabriole
1775–85; < French: leap, caper; so called because modeled on leg of a capering animal ( see capriole); b by influence of cabri kid (≪ Old Provençal ) and kindred words
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The simple set, by the collective dots, features a purple-lacquered dining table and chairs with cabriole legs; flowers in sconces; and soft green walls.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
“They don’t bear specific style characteristics that date them, like cabriole legs or acanthus leaves,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2015
Its attenuated cabriole legs, delicate swags, and flowering-urn ornamentation reference the Louis XV period, but the diminutive artifact is surfaced in then-fashion-forward shagreen and ebony.
From Architectural Digest ● Aug. 27, 2014
The craftsmen, probably based in Lewisburg, used inlay motifs popular around Baltimore and Charleston, S.C., and borrowed cabriole forms from New Orleans traditions.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2012
And, here, is a lowboy, with the shell and the fluted columns, and the cabriole legs, carved on the knees, and the claw and ball feet.
From In Her Own Right by Underwood, Clarence F.
But ballet steps — pas de chat, cabrioles, grands fouettés sautés and more — abound; so do Cunningham uses of legs and torso.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2014
He threw a snappy salute and then, breaking free, rocketed through the air in flashing cabrioles that made the audience gasp.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the road, we passed several hundreds of persons in carriages, cabrioles, or walking; all with merry faces, in showy clothes, and adorned with bouquets, on their route to this spot of favourite delight.
From The Stranger in France or, a Tour from Devonshire to Paris Illustrated by Engravings in Aqua Tint of Sketches Taken on the Spot. by Carr, John, Sir
And the almost pert flings and cabrioles of the narrator form a still more obvious and direct Declaration of Independence.
From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 by Saintsbury, George
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
