cavalier Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a gallant or courtly gentleman
    chevalier.
  2. noun a royalist supporter of Charles I during the English Civil War
    Royalist.
  3. adjective satellite given to haughty disregard of others
    high-handed.

WordNet

Cav`a*lier" noun
Etymology
F. cavalier, It. cavaliere, LL. caballarius, fr. L. caballus. See Cavalcade, and cf. Cavallier, Caballine.
Definitions
  1. A military man serving on horseback; a knight.
  2. A gay, sprightly, military man; hence, a gallant.
  3. One of the court party in the time of king Charles L. as contrasted with a Roundhead or an adherent of Parliament. Clarendon.
  4. (Fort.) A work of more that ordinary heigh, rising from the level ground of a bastion, etc., and overlooking surrounding parts.
Cav`a*lier" adjective
Definitions
  1. Gay; easy; offhand; frank.
    The plodding, persevering scupulous accuracy of the one, and the easy, cavalier, verbal fluency of the other, from a complete contrast. Hazlitt.
  2. High-spirited. Obs.
    "The people are naturally not valiant, and not much cavalier." Suckling.
  3. Supercilious; haughty; disdainful; curt; brusque.
  4. Of or pertaining to the party of King Charles I.
      "An old Cavalier family." Beaconsfleld.

Webster 1913