Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A two-wheeled, one-horse carriage that has two seats and a folding top.
- n. An automobile with a folding top; a convertible coupe.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Properly, a covered one-horse carriage with two wheels: now often made with four wheels and a calash top. See cab.
- n. In furniture, a light armchair. Cabriolets are first mentioned in a French inventory of 1759.
Wiktionary
- n. An automobile with a retractable top.
- n. A light two wheeled carriage with a folding top pulled by a single horse
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A one-horse carriage with two seats and a calash top.
WordNet 3.0
- n. small two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage; with two seats and a folding hood
Etymologies
- French, diminutive of cabriole, caper, from obsolete capriole, from Italian capriola, from capriolo, roebuck, from Latin capreolus, masculine diminutive of caprea, roe deer, from caper, he-goat.
Examples
“Lady Portmore; but in Stuart's case his cabriolet is an actual measure of economy; he sold those magnificent carriage-horses when he set it up.”
“I called a cabriolet, and the first thing the driver asked was, "Is the Bill carried?”
“The high-performance two-seater cabriolet is codenamed Audi's sister firm is also believed to be putting the finishing touches to a production version of the BlueSport concept car revealed at the 2009 Detroit Motor Show.”
“The high-performance two-seater cabriolet is codenamed R2, and is being developed with VW.”
“When a bourgeois of Boulogne takes the air, he goes in a one-horse chaise, which is here called cabriolet, and hires it for half-a-crown a day.”
“The second occupant of the cabriolet was a young girl, sixteen or eighteen years old -- sixteen rather than eighteen.”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847
“After the performance the gallant Desmahis called a cabriolet and escorted the _citoyenne_ Blaise back to the _Amour peintre_.”
“There was a beech table half eaten into by a geometrically precise hummocky valley and a pair of side tables made from cardboard, with what looked like the ghosts of elegant 18th-century cabriolet-legged wooden tables hovering inside them.”
“Presenting Hitler with a custom-built black Volkswagen cabriolet for his birthday in 1942 didn't hurt either.”
“At Highgrove, he careened around the grounds on his bicycle or a skateboard, climbed so high up in trees that he had to be rescued by the local fire department, and totaled his miniature Jaguar XJS cabriolet—a birthday present from the manufacturer.”
milosrdenstvi as in taximeter cabriolet, or taxicab. Mar 19, 2009
chained_bear Usage on barouche. Oct 21, 2008