Chicane
adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A quibble, a pedantic or dishonest objection; an act of deception. countable, uncountable
- 2 A Chicana or Chicano of any gender, or of non-binary gender. uncommon
"[…] Chicanes and Latines that continue to reproduce geographies of domination and exclusion. It strikes me that while Chicanes […]"
- 3 the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them) wordnet
- 4 The use of dishonest means or subterfuge to achieve one's (especially political) goals; chicanery, trickery. countable, uncountable
"1775, Edmund Burke, speech on conciliation with America In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole; and as an ardent is always a jealous affection, your Colonies become suspicious, restive, and untractable whenever they see the least attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the only advantage worth living for."
- 5 a movable barrier used in motor racing; sometimes placed before a dangerous corner to reduce speed as cars pass in single file wordnet
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 The holding of a hand without trumps, or the hand itself. countable, uncountable
- 7 a bridge hand that is void of trumps wordnet
- 8 A sharp double bend on a racecourse, designed to prevent unsafe speeds; an obstacle creating a curve. countable, uncountable
"On lap 23, Hamilton got a run on Leclerc into the second chicane after the two had overtaken Nico Hulkenberg's out-of-stop-sequence Renault down the main straight."
- 9 A raised area or other obstacle around which vehicles must drive, especially designed to reduce speed. countable, uncountable
- 1 To use chicanery, tricks, or subterfuge. intransitive
- 2 raise trivial objections wordnet
- 3 To deceive. transitive
- 4 defeat someone through trickery or deceit wordnet
- 1 Chicana or Chicano, and of any gender, or of non-binary gender. not-comparable, uncommon
"... Latine and Chicane workers and families, […]"
Example
More examples"1775, Edmund Burke, speech on conciliation with America In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole; and as an ardent is always a jealous affection, your Colonies become suspicious, restive, and untractable whenever they see the least attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the only advantage worth living for."
Etymology
Borrowed from French chicane.
Related phrases
More for "chicane"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.