# cavalry

Pronunciation: say "KAV-uhl-ree" /ˈkævəlɹi/

## Noun

1. The branch of an army whose soldiers fight on horseback.
   - Simple: The soldiers in an army who fight while riding horses.
   - _The general held his cavalry in reserve until the enemy's line began to break._
   - _Two thousand cavalry crossed the river at dawn and circled behind the town._
2. Someone or something that comes to the rescue, especially in an emergency.
   - Simple: Someone who comes to help when you are in trouble, especially in an emergency.
   - _When the project fell weeks behind, management called in the cavalry from the head office._
   - _The power had been out for hours when the cavalry finally showed up: a single electrician with a flashlight._
3. The branch of an army that moves in fast, light vehicles, also called mechanized cavalry.
   - Simple: The part of an army that moves around in fast, light vehicles.
   - _The division's cavalry scouted the road ahead in light armored vehicles._
   - _He served twenty years in the cavalry, most of them commanding a troop of light reconnaissance vehicles._
4. A single unit or formation belonging to an army's cavalry branch.
   - Simple: One group of soldiers that forms part of an army's cavalry.
   - _He left the infantry and joined the Third Cavalry as a young lieutenant._
   - _The general had three cavalries under his command, each led by a colonel._

## Origin

From Middle French cavalerie, in turn from Italian cavalleria; recorded in English from the 1540s. It is a doublet of chivalry.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/cavalry (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).