Meanings
- historicaluncountableA game of chance similar to roulette, played for low stakes on a board on which the numbers 1 to 70 are marked.
He seldom approached the table at which she was playing cavagnole, choosing to maintain the utmost reserve toward her.
[1903], Memoirs of Duke de Richelieu (Courtiers and Favourites of Royalty: Memoirs of the Court of France […]), volume II, Paris: Société des Bibliophiles; New York, N.Y.: Merrill & Baker, →OCLC, page 1512 more examples
The King, his grandson and granddaughter again presented themselves to public view, this time playing cavagnole at a table in the royal apartments while six thousand invited guests took advantage of the privilege of watching them.
1991, Carolly Erickson, To the Scaffold: The Life of Marie Antoinette, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Griffin, →ISBN, page 59There, like the monkeys in my father’s zoo at the palace of Laxenburg, whose antics were displayed for the delight of the Austrian elite, Louis Auguste and I were expected to amuse the crush of ducs and duchesses, marquis and marquises, and comtes and comtesses whose rank accorded them the privilege of watching the heirs to the throne of France play a few rounds of cavagnole with members of the Orléans branch of the Bourbons.
2011, Juliet Grey, “Rien”, in Becoming Marie Antoinette, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 241
Origin
- Frenchcavagnole
- Englishcavagnole
From French cavagnole.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
cavagnole. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cavagnole
“cavagnole.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cavagnole. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cavagnole,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cavagnole.
Source: cavagnole on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.