[Shortened from CANTERBURY v.]
1. intr. Of a horse, etc.: To move in a moderate gallop, raising the two fore-feet nearly at the same time with a leap or spring.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4247/4. Trots, Paces, and Canters very fine.
1804. G. Rose, Diaries (1860), II. 193. The horse, on cantering down a … hill, came on his head.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, x. 212. The zebras … canter gracefully away.
2. Of the rider.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1778), I. 117. La Fleur … canter’d away … as … perpendicular as a prince.
1821. Byron, Juan, IV. ciii. I canter by the spot each afternoon.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 164. He was cantering through the park.
3. transf. To run or move as in a canter; to move nimbly or briskly.
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1793), IV. 157. ’Tis … any thing which a man makes a shift to get astride on, to canter it away from the cares and solicitudes of life.
c. 1825. Houlston Tracts, II. No. 38. 11. Away she canters, and tosses over and tries on before the looking-glass every article of dress.
4. trans. To make (a horse) go at a canter, to ride at a canter.
1856. R. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), II. VIII. vii. 80. The islander catches … the first [pony] that comes to hand, puts on the halter, canters it his journey, and lets it go.
5. transf. To impart a cantering motion to.
1821. New Month. Mag., II. 322. She would not be cantered in a swing set up in a kitchen-garden, because, as she whispered, the potatoes had eyes.
