carriage
Pluralcarriages
- 1A light, usually four-wheeled vehicle for carrying people, typically drawn by horses.
They hired a carriage to take them across the countryside.
Elegant carriages lined the avenue during the royal procession.
Similarcoach
Note
The horse-drawn vehicle takes its name from the plain act of carrying: Middle English cariage, through Old Northern French from carier, "to carry". Its natural foil is the wagon. A carriage is built around its passengers, while a wagon is built around its load. The phrase carriage ride still carries an air of romance, and the same word names the railroad car and the baby carriage.
- 2A railroad car forming one section of a train, typically used to carry passengers.
She walked through three carriages to reach the dining car.
The rear carriage was reserved for first-class passengers.
Note
A British railway word, shortened from railway carriage. On a British train you sit in a carriage, as the passengers do in Barbara Sleigh's Jessamy (1967) when they shake crumbs from their laps at journey's end. American English calls the same section of the train a car, or a railroad car.
- 3The manner or posture in which a person holds a body part, such as the head, neck, or arms.
Her elegant carriage of the neck revealed years of ballet discipline.
The riding instructor corrected the carriage of his shoulders.
Similarposture, bearing, deportment, poise
Note
Here the bearing is local: one arm, the head, the neck. The body part often goes in front as a modifier, as in arm carriage or head carriage. The adjectives describe position rather than praise, so a runner can have a low arm carriage. For the way a whole person moves, see overall bearing and gait.
- 4A means of conveying people or goods from one place to another.
For centuries the canal was the cheapest carriage of heavy freight inland.
Wind provided the carriage that drove the sailing ships westward.
Similartransport, conveyance
- 5The act of conveying or carrying something from one place to another.
The contract covers the carriage of perishable items across the border.
Any damage during carriage must be reported within three days.
Similartransport, conveyance, shipping, transit
Note
The root meaning is on display here: Middle English cariage came through Old Northern French from carier, "to carry." It names the carrying itself, and older prose uses it naturally. Simeon Thayer's account of the 1775 invasion of Canada has men stringing pork on poles "for convenience of carriage." Vehicle, posture, conduct and fee all grow from this plain act of bearing something along.
- 6The charge made for conveying goods, especially the cost of shipping or delivery.
The invoice listed the goods separately from the carriage.
Buyers must pay the carriage when the order ships from overseas.
Similarfreight, charge, rate, cartage, freightage
Note
Shipping documents keep this sense alive in fixed phrases. Carriage forward means the receiver pays the charge, while Carriage Paid To is capitalized as a formal trade term naming where the sender's payment ends. Freight, freightage and cartage are close neighbors. Charge and rate are broader words for any fee, not only the cost of conveying goods.
- 7The moving part of a typewriter that holds the paper and shifts it sideways as each key is struck.
With each keystroke the carriage advanced one space to the left.
He slammed the carriage return lever at the end of every line.
- 8A small, wheeled conveyance in which a baby lies or sits while being pushed by hand.
He parked the carriage beside the bench while the baby napped.
New parents often wheel a carriage along the high street on a fine morning.
Similarpram, stroller, buggy, pushchair
Note
In British usage the single word is enough: a carriage wheeled along the high street holds a baby. American English needs the full phrase baby carriage, or says stroller instead. The same short word names a supermarket cart in New England, so this sense and the New England shopping cart can collide when British and American speakers meet.
- 9A wheeled basket used to carry goods while shopping in a store.
She steered the carriage toward the produce section.
A stray carriage rolled across the parking lot in the wind.
Note
A New England word: shoppers in that corner of the United States push a carriage where most Americans push a shopping cart. Outside the region, carriage for a supermarket cart can puzzle listeners, who may picture a horse-drawn vehicle or a baby carriage. For a general American audience, cart is the safer choice.
Less common meanings
- 10A person's general manner of walking and moving; their bearing or gait.
His noble carriage marked him as a man of high birth.
In spite of her erect carriage she could flop to her knees to pray as smart as any of us.
1942, Emily Carr, “Characters”Note
Rare now, but far from dead. Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590) praises a carriage "full comely and vpright," and the word still turns up as admiration. Emily Carr writes of an "erect carriage," Miles Davis asks a musician for "good carriage," and Cicely Tyson finds Maya Angelou's power "in her carriage." It is a compliment that pairs well with erect, upright or good. In everyday speech it sounds deliberately elevated.
- 11A person's behavior or way of conducting themselves toward others.
The gentleman's courteous carriage toward strangers earned him wide respect.
Modest carriage in company was thought becoming in a young woman.
Note
Older writers use the word for conduct, not posture. In Fielding's Tom Jones (1749) a husband "assumed a carriage to me" quite unlike his recent behavior, and Byron's Inez forgets "her very prudent carriage." The adjectives judge character, such as wise or prudent, and the preposition is to or toward. In modern writing, this use would be mistaken for physical bearing.
- 12That which is carried; the baggage or belongings transported on a journey.
The travelers sent their carriage ahead by cart while they walked.
And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.
1611, The Holy Bible, King James VersionNote
Readers of the King James Bible of 1611 meet this sense when David leaves "his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage" and runs to greet his brothers. The word means his baggage, not a vehicle: what was carried, rather than what carried it. Today baggage does this work, and carriage in this sense mainly echoes older texts.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English cariage, from Old Northern French cariage, which came from carier meaning "to carry."