CANTER (canter)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: canter   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does canter mean? 

• CANTER (noun)
  The noun CANTER has 1 sense:

1. a smooth three-beat gait; between a trot and a gallop

  Familiarity information: CANTER used as a noun is very rare.

• CANTER (verb)
  The verb CANTER has 3 senses:

1. ride at a canter

2. go at a canter, of horses

3. ride at a cantering pace

  Familiarity information: CANTER used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CANTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A smooth three-beat gait; between a trot and a gallop

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

canter; lope

Hypernyms ("canter" is a kind of...):

gait (a horse's manner of moving)

Derivation:

canter (ride at a canter)

canter (ride at a cantering pace)

canter (go at a canter, of horses)

• CANTER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they canter    ... he / she / it canters   
Past simple: cantered   
Past participle: cantered   
-ing form: cantering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Ride at a canter

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

The men cantered away

Hypernyms (to "canter" is one way to...):

ride horseback (ride on horseback)

Domain category:

horseback riding; riding (travel by being carried on horseback)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

canter (a smooth three-beat gait; between a trot and a gallop)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Go at a canter, of horses

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "canter" is one way to...):

pace (go at a pace)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sentence example:

The horses canter across the field

Derivation:

canter (a smooth three-beat gait; between a trot and a gallop)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Ride at a cantering pace

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

He cantered the horse across the meadow

Hypernyms (to "canter" is one way to...):

ride; sit (sit and travel on the back of animal, usually while controlling its motions)

Domain category:

horseback riding; riding (travel by being carried on horseback)

equitation; horseback riding; riding (the sport of sitting on the back of a horse while controlling its movements)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

The men canter the horses across the field

Derivation:

canter (a smooth three-beat gait; between a trot and a gallop)

 Context examples 

Only that it is a remarkable cow which walks, canters, and gallops.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At the sight of their returning comrades there was a shout of welcome, and a horseman, who had been exercising his charger behind the camp, came cantering down to them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As I spoke a powerful bay horse swept out from the weighing enclosure and cantered past us, bearing on its back the well-known black and red of the Colonel.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She would canter up to the door on her pony, followed by a mounted livery servant.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

At first Miss Crawford and her companion made the circuit of the field, which was not small, at a foot's pace; then, at her apparent suggestion, they rose into a canter; and to Fanny's timid nature it was most astonishing to see how well she sat.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And here, in the very first stage, I was supplanted by a shabby man with a squint, who had no other merit than smelling like a livery-stables, and being able to walk across me, more like a fly than a human being, while the horses were at a canter!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

At the same instant an empty dog-cart, the horse cantering, the reins trailing, appeared round the curve of the road and rattled swiftly towards us.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As he spoke the attendant cantered up the grassy enclosure, and pulling up his steed in front of the royal stand, blew a second fanfare upon his bugle.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then the front ranks began to surge slowly forward, to trot, to canter, to gallop, and in an instant the whole vast array was hurtling onward, line after line, the air full of the thunder of their cries, the ground shaking with the beat of their hoofs, the valley choked with the rushing torrent of steel, topped by the waving plumes, the slanting spears and the fluttering banderoles.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mounted upon a horse as large, as black, and as forbidding as himself, he cantered slowly forward, with none of those prancings and gambades with which a cavalier was accustomed to show his command over his charger.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)