释义 |
‖ petits chevaux|pəti ʃəvo| [Fr., lit. little horses.] A gambling game in which bets are placed on the performance of mechanically operated horses made to spin round a flag placed at the centre of a specially prepared circular table.
1891Clown 9 June 13/2 Some of the most naughty of us will go and tempt fortune with the ‘petit[s] chevaux’—at Dieppe. 1905W. J. Locke Morals M. Ordeyne xii. 147 She has a consuming passion for petits chevaux. I speak sagely of the evils of gambling. 1911[see boule4 1]. 1912‘Saki’ Chron. Clovis 181 It was just before petits chevaux had been supplanted by boule. 1929R. Aldington Death of Hero iii. vi. 330 He disapproved of baccarat, roulette, and petits chevaux. 1964C. Mackenzie My Life & Times III. i. 22, I do not know what the rules are to-day for petits chevaux but in 1900 horse number 5 of the 9 horses meant that the bank won. 1964A. Wykes Gambling ix. 211 Other variations of roulette..Petits chevaux—which still flourishes in Northern France and Ireland. |