carpet knight
Preserved but no longer current.
One dubbed at Court by favour, not having won his spurs by military service in the field. Perhaps because mayors, lawyers, and civilians generally are knighted as they kneel on a carpet before their sovereign in contradistinction to those knighthoods that used to be conferred on the actual field of battle; but more probably with allusion to the preference shown by non-martial knights for the carpeted drawing-room over the tented field.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “carpet knight” mean?
One dubbed at Court by favour, not having won his spurs by military service in the field. Perhaps because mayors, lawyers, and civilians generally are knighted as they kneel on a carpet before their sovereign in contradistinction to those knighthoods that used to be conferred on the actual field of battle; but more probably with allusion to the preference shown by non-martial knights for the carpeted drawing-room over the tented field.
Is “carpet knight” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.