Definition of "chevron" in English

noun

1. A V-shaped pattern; used in architecture, and as an insignia of military or police rank, on the sleeve.

2. (heraldry) A wide inverted V placed on a shield.

3. (chiefly British) One of the V-shaped markings on the surface of roads used to indicate minimum distances between vehicles.

   • 2009, Jamie Dunn, Truckie has a point, Sunshine Coast Daily Online, June 13, 2009. I told you that in fact they were called chevrons and it was an exercise by the transport department to teach us to stay two chevrons behind the car in front.

4. A guillemet, either of the punctuation marks “«” or “»”, used in several languages to indicate passages of speech. Similar to typical quotation marks used in the English language such as ““” and “””.

5. An angle bracket, either used as a typographic or a scientific symbol.

6. (informal) A háček, a diacritical mark that may resemble an inverted circumflex.

   • The symbol ř (“r” with a chevron) is used for a phoneme which sounds like Czech ř (as in Dvořák), i.e. a voiced alveolar flap. The presence of the chevron has no effect on the index numbers used in transliteration; cf. 2.058.

7. A wedge-shaped sediment deposit observed on coastlines and continental interiors around the world.

8. Synonym of arrowhead (“horse jump obstacle”).

verb

1. To form or be formed into chevrons

   • ...the sheet to be chevroned locks itself into the furrow.