gondola

[gon-dl-uh or especially for 1, gon-doh-luh]

See more synonyms for gondola on Thesaurus.com

noun

a long, narrow, flat-bottomed boat having a tall, ornamental stem and stern and sometimes a small cabin for passengers, rowed or poled by a single person who stands at the stern, facing forward: used especially on the canals of Venice, Italy.
a passenger compartment suspended beneath a balloon or airship.Compare car¹(def 4).
an enclosed cabin suspended from an overhead cable, used to transport passengers up and down a ski slope or over scenic or treacherous terrain.

Also called gondola car. an open railroad freight car with low sides, for transporting bulk freight and manufactured goods.
a truck whose bed or trailer is a hopper, as for transporting mixed cement.
a freestanding structure for displaying merchandise in a retail establishment, as a supermarket.
a chair or couch having a gondola back.

Origin of gondola

1540–50; < Italian < Venetian, probably < Medieval Greek kontoúra small boat used in coastal navigation, noun use of feminine of kóntouros short, clipped, literally, dock-tailed, equivalent to Late Greek kont(ós), kond(ós) short + Greek -ouros -tailed, adj. derivative of ourá tail

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for gondola

dinghy, canoe, sailboat, yacht, craft, barge, raft, ship, catamaran, schooner, gondola, bottom, hulk, launch, skiff, bucket, bark, ark, lifeboat, ketch

Examples from the Web for gondola

Historical Examples of gondola

There you will get into the gondola, and say to the gondolier these words: 'To the casino.'
The Memoires of Casanova, Complete
Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
I persuade the young countess to follow me, and we take a gondola.
The Memoires of Casanova, Complete
Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
After a very good supper I took a gondola to return to Muran.
The Memoires of Casanova, Complete
Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
She will name her own hour, and you will accompany her here in her gondola.
The Memoires of Casanova, Complete
Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
He had forgotten that the Campo was to be entered from two ways, by gondola and by foot.
The Lure of the Mask
Harold MacGrath

British Dictionary definitions for gondola

gondola

noun

a long narrow flat-bottomed boat with a high ornamented stem and a platform at the stern where an oarsman stands and propels the boat by sculling or punting: traditionally used on the canals of Venice
1. a car or cabin suspended from an airship or balloon
2. a moving cabin suspended from a cable across a valley, etc
a flat-bottomed barge used on canals and rivers of the US as far west as the Mississippi
US and Canadian a low open flat-bottomed railway goods wagon
a set of island shelves in a self-service shop: used for displaying goods
Canadian a broadcasting booth built close to the roof over an ice-hockey arena, used by commentators

Word Origin for gondola

C16: from Italian (Venetian dialect), from Medieval Latin gondula, perhaps ultimately from Greek kondu drinking vessel

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

Word Origin and History for gondola

1540s, from Italian (Venetian) gondola, earlier in English as goundel, from Old Italian gondula, of unknown origin; perhaps from Rhaeto-Romanic dialectal gondola "roll, rock," or perhaps a diminutive of gonda, name of a kind of boat. Meaning "cabin of an airship" is 1896, though it was used hypothetically in 1881 in a prediction piece titled "300 Years Hence":

You step into an aerial gondola ... and are at once borne upwards.