gait

¹gait

noun \ˈgāt\

Definition of GAIT

1

: a manner of walking or moving on foot

2

: a sequence of foot movements (as a walk, trot, pace, or canter) by which a horse or a dog moves forward

3

: a manner or rate of movement or progress <the leisurely gait of summer>

Examples of GAIT

1. He has an awkward gait.
2. They were orthopedic shoes built around molds of my feet, and they had a 2 1/4-inch lift. … they had given me a more or less even gait for the first time in 10 years. —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., New York Times Magazine, 9 Dec. 1990
3. Interaction with the horse takes place on several levels. Physical communication is foremost. You learn its body language and it learns to respond to a body language you use to ask for changes in gait, direction, and body frame. —Maxine Kumin, In Deep, 1987
4. How many prose writers can you identify from their style? Not many have that singular emanation from the temperament or those combinations of words all of them characteristic for a certain gait, a certain tone, a certain idiosyncratic consecutiveness of thought and image. —Paul West, New York Times Book Review, 15 Dec. 1985
5. He walked with an odd gait, a kind of shuffle, pushing his feet along the floor without lifting them. —E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime, (1974) 1975
6. They walked on with the same light gait, so nearly of a height that keeping step came as naturally to them as breathing. —Edith Wharton, The Reef, 1912

Origin of GAIT

Middle English gait, gate gate, way

First Known Use: 1509

Other Equestrian Terms

canter, cantle, curry, farrier, hunter, paddock, router, skirt, tack

Rhymes with GAIT

ait, bait, bate, blate, cate, crate, date, eight, fate, fete, freight, gate, grate, great, haet, hate, late, mate, pate, plait, plate, prate, quoit, rate, sate, skate, slate, spate, state, straight, strait, teth, trait, wait, weight