canter

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A gait of a horse between a trot and a gallop, consisting of three beats and a "suspension" phase, where there are no feet on the ground. Also describing this gait on other four-legged animals.
  2. A ride on a horse at such speed.
verb
  1. To move at such pace.
  2. To cause to move at a canter; to ride (a horse) at a canter.
noun
  1. One who cants or whines; a beggar.
  2. One who makes hypocritical pretensions to goodness; one who uses canting language.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈkæn.tə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-canter.wav /ˈkæn.tɚ/ [ˈkɛən.tɚ]

Word forms

canter canters cantering cantered

Etymology

Short for Canterbury pace, from the supposed easy pace of medieval pilgrims to Canterbury.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.