jinrikisha
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of jinrikisha
First recorded in 1870–75; from Japanese, equivalent to jin “man, person” + -riki “power, strength” + -sha “vehicle, carriage” (from Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese rénlì shē )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Vice Consul Kuramoto signalled a jinrikisha, stepped in, and that was the last anyone saw of him for five days.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Through Hong Kong's twisting, crowded streets drove Gina Lollobrigida, riding alternately in a gold-painted Fiat and a jinrikisha, and extolling at every stop the virtues of Italian products.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
So dense is the crowd that it is with difficulty one can push through on foot or in jinrikisha.
From Japanese Girls and Women Revised and Enlarged Edition by Bacon, Alice Mabel
Our jinrikisha men took us there in less than an hour and a half, but as the road rises towards Kioto we were fully two hours in returning.
From Due West or Round the World in Ten Months by Ballou, Maturin Murray
All Japanese dignitaries and nearly all foreigners use the jinrikisha, which has the right of way in the narrow streets.
From The Critic in the Orient by Fitch, George Hamlin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.