English

Noun

piaffe ‎(plural piaffes)

1. (dressage) A calm, composed, elevated trot in place.

Verb

piaffe ‎(third-person singular simple present piaffes, present participle piaffing, simple past and past participle piaffed)

1. (archaic, rare) To strut pretentiously, to parade about.
   • 1593, John Eliot, Ortho-epia Gallica: Eliots fruits for the French, Scolar P., published 1968, page A3:

     Which loue you must know was ingendered in the sweet soile of Fraunce, where I piaffed like a bon companion, with a steele at my girdle, till the Friars (a canker of the curssed Covent) fell to drawing of naked knives, and kild indeed the good kind Henrie of Fraunce, the more was the pittie.

2. To trot a horse with a high, slow, step, lifting the feet but without moving forward significantly.
   • 1761 (1778), James A. H. Murray, editor, A new English dictionary on historical principles: founded mainly on the materials collected by the Philological Society, Volume 7, Part 2, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Mil. Equitation by Earl of Pembroke, published 1905, page 813:

     To piaffe in backing is rather too much to be expected in the hurry which [etc.].

3. To ride a horse in this way.
   • 1814, Sir Walter Scott, Peter Garside, editor, Waverley, volume 1 of Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels, Edinburgh University Press, published 2008, page 289:

     Accordingly he piaffed away in high spirits and confidence to the head of Fergus's regiment, although understanding not a word of Gaelic, and very little English.

Translations

Finnish

Alternative forms

• piaffi

Noun

piaffe

1. piaffe (movement)

Declension

French

Verb

piaffe

1. first-person singular present indicative of piaffer
2. third-person singular present indicative of piaffer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of piaffer
4. first-person singular present subjunctive of piaffer
5. second-person singular imperative of piaffer