- The definition of a cantle is the upward-curving, rear part of a saddle.
An example of a cantle is the part of a saddle where your lower back rests.
The cantle of this saddle it on the right.
cantle
noun
the upward-curving rear part of a saddle
Origin of cantle
Middle English cantel, a corner, rim, piece ; from Old French ; from Medieval Latin cantellus, diminutive of Late Latin cantus: see cantcantle
noun
- The raised rear part of a saddle.
- A corner, segment, or portion; a piece: a cantle of land.
Origin of cantle
Middle English cantel, corner, from Old French, from Medieval Latin cantellus, from Vulgar Latin *cantus; see cant1.
cantle
on a western saddle
cantle
Noun
(plural cantles)
- ca. 1597, Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act III, Scene i:
- See how this river comes me cranking in,
- And cuts me from the best of all my land
- A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out.
- 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, Book VI, xlviii:
- Their armors forged were of metal frail;
- On every side thereof huge cantles flies;
- The land was strewed all with plate and mail,
- That on the earth, on that their warm blood lies.
- Their armors forged were of metal frail;
- Milton
- In one cantle of his law.
- The raised back of a saddle.
Verb
(third-person singular simple present cantles, present participle cantling, simple past and past participle cantled)
- (obsolete) To cut into pieces.
- (obsolete) To cut out from.
Anagrams
Origin
From Old Northern French cantel, Old French chantel (Modern French chanteau), from Medieval Latin cantellus, diminutive of Latin cantus (“corner”).
