cavalry

• cavalery (obsolete)

From Middle French cavalerie, in turn from Italian cavalleria. Recorded in English from the 1540s. Doublet of chivalry.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkævəlɹi/

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cavalry (countable and uncountable, plural cavalries)

1. (military, usually historical, uncountable) The military arm of service that fights while riding horses.
   • 1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter XXXIII, in The White Company, New York, N.Y., Boston, Mass.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell & Company […], →OCLC:

     Two hundred heavily-armed cavalry rode behind the Audley standard, while close at their heels came the Duke of Lancaster with a glittering train, heralds tabarded with the royal arms riding three deep upon cream-colored chargers in front of him.

2. (military, countable) An individual unit of this arm of service.
3. (military, countable) The branch of the military transported by fast light vehicles, also known as mechanized cavalry.
4. (figurative) A source of rescue, especially in an emergency.

   call in the cavalry

   • 2015 February 1, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary‎^[1], archived from the original on 14 May 2024:

     "We landed in their killbox?" "We did. I am sor... No, belay that. Heads down! Cavalry incoming!"

• Delamarre, X. & Lambert, P. -Y. (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise : Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental (2nd ed.). Paris: Errance. →ISBN, →ISBN

• Calvary, calvary