travois

[ truh-voi ]

noun,plural tra·vois [truh-voiz]. /trəˈvɔɪz/.
  1. a transport device, formerly used by the Plains Indians, consisting of two poles joined by a frame and drawn by an animal.

Origin of travois

1
1840–50; Americanism;pseudo-French spelling of earlier travoy<North American French; compare Canadian French travail shaft of a cart to which the horse is hitched, French: frame in which unruly horses are held while they are shod (probably <Late Latin trepālium;see travail)

Words Nearby travois

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How to use travois in a sentence

  • Now our worldly goods were increasing, so I cut down two lodge poles and made a little travois for the dog.

    The Way of a Man | Emerson Hough
  • travois were loaded with household goods, or carried women too old and children too young to walk or ride horseback.

    South from Hudson Bay | E. C. [Ethel Claire] Brill
  • These Indians have a large number of ugly dogs, and sometimes they hitch them to their travois.

  • She snatched him off the travois, but he struggled out of her arms to look upon his dog lovingly and admiringly.

    Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains | [AKA Ohiyesa], Charles A. Eastman
  • The youthful Gall was in a travois, a basket mounted on trailing poles and harnessed to the sides of the animal.

    Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains | [AKA Ohiyesa], Charles A. Eastman

British Dictionary definitions for travois

travois

/ (trəˈvɔɪ) /


nounplural -vois (-ˈvɔɪz)
  1. a sled formerly used by the Plains Indians of North America, consisting of two poles joined by a frame and dragged by an animal

  2. Canadian a similar sled used for dragging logs

Origin of travois

1
from Canadian French, from French travail trave

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012