chivalrous

From Middle English chivalerous, from Old French chevalerous; see chivalry.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪv.əl.ɹəs/, (archaic) /ˈt͡ʃɪv.əl.ɹəs/

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chivalrous (comparative more chivalrous, superlative most chivalrous)

1. (of a man) Honourable, especially to women; gallant.

   Synonym: chivalric

   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 5, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

     Among boys there are laws of honour and chivalrous codes, not written, or formally taught, but intuitively understood by all, and invariably acted upon by the loyal and the true.

   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 96:

     “I would then never have known what minute, or by whom, I was to be attacked next. But the brutes are more chivalrous than man—they do not stoop to cowardly intrigue.”

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “VII AND XXI”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     It amazed me that I could have allowed myself to be let in for a binge of this description simply because a woman wished it. Too bally chivalrous for our own good, we Woosters, and always have been.

2. Involving chivalry.

   Synonym: chivalric

• unchivalrous

chivalrous

1. alternative form of chivalerous