carriage

[kar-ij, kar-ee-ij]

noun

1. a wheeled vehicle for conveying persons, as one drawn by horses and designed for comfort and elegance.

   Synonyms: wagon, car, cart

2. baby carriage.

3. British.,  a railway passenger coach.

4. a wheeled support, as for a cannon.

5. a movable part, as of a machine, designed for carrying something.

6. manner of carrying the head and body; bearing.

   the carriage of a soldier.

   Synonyms: air, demeanor, comportment, mien

7. Also called carriage piece,. Also called horse. an inclined beam, as a string, supporting the steps of a stair.

8. the act of transporting; conveyance.

   the expenses of carriage.

9. the price or cost of transportation.

10. (in a typewriter) the moving part carrying the platen and its associated parts, usually set in motion to carry the paper across the point where the print element or type bars strike.

11. management; administration.

carriage

/ ˈkærɪdʒ /

noun

1. a railway coach for passengers

2. the manner in which a person holds and moves his head and body; bearing

3. a four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for persons

4. the moving part of a machine that bears another part

   a typewriter carriage

   a lathe carriage

5. 1. the act of conveying; carrying

   2. the charge made for conveying (esp in the phrases carriage forward, when the charge is to be paid by the receiver, and carriage paid )

Word History and Origins

Origin of carriage¹

1150–1200; Middle English cariage < Anglo-French, Old North French, equivalent to cari ( er ) to carry + -age -age

Word History and Origins

Origin of carriage¹

C14: from Old Northern French cariage, from carier to _carry

Example Sentences

Vanity Fair, which covered the weekend, described guests arriving by horse-drawn carriage for a dinner and flamenco party, and there were also cultural tours of castles and art galleries.

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One woman the BBC spoke to, badly injured in a Russian strike on a civilian railway carriage, shrugged her shoulders when we asked her if she saw an easy way out.

Read more on BBC

Hackney carriages, the horse-drawn predecessors of today’s black cabs, were first licensed in 1662.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

A classic example is Henry Ford’s Model T destroying the market for horse-drawn carriages.

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Today, dropped into phone calls, Zoom squares and social-media feeds, our brains feel, as Mr. Rein puts it, “out of place, an archaic tool,” like “a horse-drawn carriage on the autobahn.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• freight