Carriage

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æɹɪdÊ’

Origin

From Old Northern French cariage, from carier ("to carry").

Full definition of carriage

Noun

1. The act of conveying; carrying.
2. Means of conveyance.
3. A wheeled vehicle, generally drawn by horse power.The carriage ride was very romantic.
4. (British) A rail car, esp. designed for the conveyance of passengers.
5. (now rare) A manner of walking and moving in general; how one carries oneself, bearing, gait.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:His carriage was full comely and vpright,
  His countenaunce demure and temperate ....
• 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 90:He chose to speak largely about Vietnam ..., and his wonderfully sonorous voice was as enthralling to me as his very striking carriage and appearance.
6. (archaic) One's behaviour, or way of conducting oneself towards others.
• 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 407:He now assumed a carriage to me so very different from what he had lately worn, and so nearly resembling his behaviour the first week of our marriage, that ... he might, possibly, have rekindled my fondness for him.
• 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, I:Some people whisper but no doubt they lie,
  For malice still imputes some private end,
  That Inez had, ere Don Alfonso's marriage,
  Forgot with him her very prudent carriage ....
7. The part of a typewriter supporting the paper.
8. (US, New England) A shopping cart.
9. (British) A stroller; a baby carriage.
10. The charge made for conveying (especially in the phrases carriage forward, when the charge is to be paid by the receiver, and carriage paid).

Related terms

• baby carriage
• carriage gown
• carriage return
• gun carriage

Hyponyms

Adjective

1. Related to a wheeled vehicle, generally drawn by horse power.
   The carriage ride was very romantic.
• 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate Chapter Prologue, Athelstan Arundel walked home …, foaming and raging....He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
• 1907, w, The Younger Set Chapter 1/2, His sister, Mrs. Gerard, stood there in carriage gown and sables, radiant with surprise. “Phil ! You ! Exactly like you, Philip, to come strolling in from the antipodes—dear fellow !” recovering from the fraternal embrace and holding both lapels of his coat in her gloved hands.