Definition of "caracole" in English

noun

1. A half-turn performed by a horse and rider in dressage.

2. (cavalry, historical) A combat maneuver where riders of the same squadron turn simultaneously to their left or to their right.

3. (architecture) A spiral staircase.

verb

1. To execute a caracole.

   • 1884, Robert Black (translator), François Guizot, Henriette Elizabeth Guizot de Witt, The History of France from the Earliest Times to 1848, Volume 1, John B. Alden, page 259, Finally he went out of church and caracoled about on the open, at the foot of the castle, in presence of the people eager to have their share in the spectacle.
   • 2010, Peter H. Wilson (translator and editor), The Thirty Years War: A Sourcebook, Macmillan Publishers (Palgrave Macmillan), page 67, The proper way, which I often explained to them, was too reject the bad habit of caracolling when facing the enemy.