English

Noun

cheville ‎(plural chevilles)

1. (poetry) word or phrase whose only function is to make a sentence metrically balanced
   • 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Art of Writing

     The genius of prose rejects the cheville no less emphatically than the laws of verse; and the cheville, I should perhaps explain to some of my readers, is any meaningless or very watered phrase employed to strike a balance in the sound.

   • 1910, Patrick Weston Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, chapter 5

     The practice of using chevilles was very common in old Irish poetry, and a bad practice it was; for many a good poem is quite spoiled by the constant and wearisome recurrence of these chevilles.

French

Etymology

From Old French, from Vulgar Latin *cāvicla < *cāvicula, from Classical Latin clāvicula, diminutive of clāvis ‎(“key”). Doublet of clavicule.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃə.vij/

Noun

cheville f ‎(plural chevilles)

1. ankle
2. dowel, peg
3. wall plug
4. (poetry) cheville

Derived terms

• avoir les chevilles grosses
• en cheville

Old French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *cāvicla < *cāvicula, from Classical Latin clāvicula, diminutive of clāvis ‎(“key”).

Noun

cheville f ‎(oblique plural chevilles, nominative singular cheville, nominative plural chevilles)

1. ankle (anatomy)

Descendants

• French: cheville