Me voilà donc cheval de retour, on me remet à Toulon, cette fois avec les bonnets verts.—V. Hugo.
(Military) Cheval de l’adjudant, camp bed of cell; (familiar) —— qui la connaît dans les coins, a clever horse. Literally skilful at turning the corners. (Popular) Faire son —— de corbillard, to put on a jaunty look; to give oneself conceited airs; to bluster, or, as the Americans say, “to be on the tall grass.”
Chevalier, m. (popular), de la courte lance, hospital assistant; —— de la grippe, thief, or “prig.” See [Grinche]. Chevalier de la manchette, Sodomist; —— de la pédale, one who works a card-printing machine; —— de l’aune, shopman, or “knight of the yard;” —— de salon, de tapis vert, gamester; —— du bidet, women’s bully, or “pensioner.” See [Poisson]. Chevalier du crochet, rag-picker, or “bone-grubber;” —— du lansquenet, gambling cheat who has recourse to the card-sharping trick denominated “[le pont]” (which see); —— du lustre, “claqueur,” that is, one who is paid for applauding at theatres; —— du printemps, or de l’ordre du printemps, silly fellow who flowers his button-hole to make it appear that he has the decoration of the “Légion d’Honneur;” —— grimpant, see [Voleur au bonjour].
Chevau-léger, m. (familiar), ultra-Conservative of the Legitimist and Clerical party. The chevau-légers were formerly a corps of household cavalry.
[Chevaux], m. pl. (popular), à doubles semelles, legs. Compare the English expression, “to ride Shank’s mare, or pony.”
Chevelu, adj. (familiar), art ——, littérateur ——, poète ——, art, literary man, poet of the “école romantique,” of which the chief in literature was Victor Hugo.
Cheveu, m. (familiar), difficulty; trouble; hindrance; hitch. Voilà le ——, ay, there’s the rub. J’ai un ——, I have some trouble on my mind, reason for uneasiness. Il y a un —— dans son bonheur, there is some trouble that mars his happiness. (Popular) Avoir un —— pour un homme, to fancy a man. (Theatrical) Cheveu, unintentional jumbling of words by transposition of syllables. This kind of mistake when intentional Rabelais termed “équivoquer.”
En l’aultre deux ou trois miroirs ardents dont il faisait enrager aulcunes fois les hommes et les femmes et leur faisait perdre contenance à l’ecclise. Car il disait qu’il n’y avait qu’une antistrophe entre femme folle à la messe et femme molle à la fesse.—Rabelais, Pantagruel.
See also Œuvres de Rabelais (Garnier’s edition), Pantagruel, page 159.
Cheveux, m. (familiar and popular), avoir mal aux ——, to have a headache caused by overnight potations. Faire des —— gris à quelqu’un, to trouble one, to give anxiety to one. Se faire des —— blancs, to fret; to feel annoyed at being made to wait a long time. Trouver des —— à tout, to find fault with everything. (Military) Passer la main dans les ——, to cut one’s hair.