chicane
Americannoun
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a bridge or whist hand without trumps
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motor racing a short section of sharp narrow bends formed by barriers placed on a motor-racing circuit to provide an additional test of driving skill
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a less common word for chicanery
verb
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(tr) to deceive or trick by chicanery
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(tr) to quibble about; cavil over
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(intr) to use tricks or chicanery
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of chicane
1665–75; < French chicane (noun), chicaner (v.), perhaps < Middle Low German schikken to arrange
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:
Leclerc cut a chicane on the first lap to take the lead from Hamilton, who then lost second place to Max Verstappen as a consequence of his team-mate's attack.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
The Italian, a teenager until late August, spent the closing laps watching Hamilton try to get close enough to pass Verstappen after the two had made contact at the first chicane at the restart.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
In the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix, he passed Christian Klien's Red Bull by cutting the chicane, let him by again on the straight and then passed him into Turn One.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
The second sector - of which Pouhon is the highlight - is used for recharging so the battery is full again for the long run from Stavelot to the final chicane.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
The bar of Greece and Rome you point me out, A bar that trained great men, I do not doubt, For then chicane with language void of sense Had not deformed the law and eloquence.
From Briefless Ballads and Legal Lyrics Second Series by James Williams
Carole Lombard, a $20,000,000 American in Cuba, is sorry Dancer George Raft was chicaned by a counterfeit lottery ticket bearing the same number as her genuine winning ticket.
From Time Magazine Archive
Chmielnicki, now doubly hateful to the Poles as being both a royalist and a Cossack, was again maltreated and chicaned, and only escaped from gaol by bribing his gaolers.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" by Various
He had tried his best to get rid of them, advanced the rent, implored, chicaned, but all in vain.
From The Son of Monte-Cristo, Volume II by Jules Lermina
The very possibility of public agency, by which such petitions could authentically arrive at Parliament, has been evaded and chicaned away.
From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 06 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
I had heard enough to tell me I had been chicaned.
From The Bandolero A Marriage among the Mountains by Mayne Reid
A Judge that goes upon chicaning is to be punished more severely than a highway Robber.
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 21 by Thomas Carlyle
The only two openings by which I could enter the temple of fortune were the gate of niggardly economy, or the path of little chicaning bargain-making.
From The Letters of Robert Burns by Robert Burns
Whereby come Dissident ejected Priests; unconquerable Martyrs according to some, incurable chicaning Traitors according to others.
From The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
The only two openings by which I could enter the temple of fortune were the gate of niggardly economy or the path of little chicaning bargain-making.
From Stories of Achievement, Volume IV (of 6) Authors and Journalists by Asa Don Dickinson
The man who goes to law surrenders his liberty of action and becomes the sport of chicaning lawyers and hair-splitting judges.
From Mr. Fortescue An Andean Romance by William Westall
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