[f. prec. sb., or directly from It. capriolare ‘to caper, to capriole’ (Florio).] intr. To leap, skip, caper. Also said of horses (and their riders); and fig.
1580. Sidney, etc. Ps. cxiv. (R.). Hillocks, why capreold ye, as wanton by their dammes We capreoll see the lusty lambs.
1690. Crowne, Eng. Frier, III. 21. If you had been starv’d, you wou’d not have caprioll’d with your witty conceits.
1788. Dibdin, Mus. Tour, xc. 365. Leap, skip, and pound would poor Ap Hugh, And capriole, and caper too.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1857), I. I. VII. x. 220. Rascality, caprioling on horses from the Royal Stud.
Hence Caprioling vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1628. Le Grys, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, 41. Not to haue their stables full (as in an Army of Sibarytes) of capreoling Horses.
1821. De Quincey, Wks. (1863), XIII. 121. The wild … dancing, waltzing, caprioling … of the chamois.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, let. xii. In the midst of her exuberant caprioling.
