Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A large open farm wagon.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A four-wheeled vehicle for the transportation of goods, or for carrying corn, hay, etc.; a wagon or cart.
- n. Same as Charles's Wain.
- To carry; convey; fetch.
- n. A Middle English form of gain.
Wiktionary
- n. A wagon; A four-wheeled cart for hauling loads, usually pulled by horses or oxen.
- n. A chariot used by the gods and goddesses or a symbolic cart used in rituals and shrines in Heathenry.
- v. To lose strength or clarity.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A four-wheeled vehicle for the transportation of goods, produce, etc.; a wagon.
- n. A chariot.
WordNet 3.0
- n. large open farm wagon
- n. English writer (1925-1994)
- n. a group of seven bright stars in the constellation Ursa Major
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English wǣn, wægn; see wegh- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Pleiads, on late-setting Bootes, and on the Bear — which men also call the wain, and which turns round and round where it is, facing Orion, and alone never dipping into the stream of”
“Now on the wain was a tall, upright churn; as soon as Georgie had ended his speech, the lid of the churn began to clipper-clapper, and who should speak out of it but the boggart himself.”
“Bootes, and on the Bear -- which men also call the wain, and which turns round and round where it is, facing Orion, and alone never dipping into the stream of Oceanus -- for Calypso had told him to keep this to his left.”
“The construct crashed off in pursuit, and Kyrtian scrambled out from under the "wain" to take shelter, not under, but behind yet another behemoth.”
Elvenborn
“The _bride-wain_, the wagon in which the bride was driven to her new home, gave its name to the weddings of any poor deserving couple, who drove a "wain" round the village, collecting small sums of money or articles of furniture towards their housekeeping.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria"
“Oh my gawd …. “laughin in the wain” … “sittin in the gwass”.”
ABBA – as interpreted by little people – TAKE TWO « Bored Mommy
“The popularity may wain, but there seems to be a fervent core of fans that will gobble up whatever book or movie that showcases at least one shambling, moaning, brain-craving monster.”
“I can ge the proceduers one withour having to wain my turn or if someone is more necessary than another.”
Republicans raising cash to counter-program ABC Obama special
“By this time we were fully drenched as we walked through tall grasses that had colleted the clouds thoughout the day and the daylight was quickly begining to wain.”
Where did you spend your Christmas holiday?? « Peace Corps South Africa
“RosanatorDA wet hot was my favorite comedy from last decade. anything wain does deserves to be seen, im all for this. cholm690”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wain’.
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Archaic
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 327 more...
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Davenport
words looked up recently from reading Guy Davenport
flenite, sampan, provender, comitatus, cycladic, surd, scialytic, lignite, plangencies, fugal, zamindary, macaque and 112 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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A Song of Ice and Fire
Vocabulary from the epic fantasy series by George R. R. Martin!
destrier, wroth, garron, portcullis, craven, lickspittle, palfrey, ermine, surcoat, brigandine, doublet, deign and 7 more...
jaime_d From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport. Jan 19, 2010
seanahan As used in wainwright. Sep 30, 2008
mollusque As everyone knows, two days before Philip issued the arrest warrant, and a month before it was carried out, a hay wain drawn by oxen left the precincts of the Temple for an unknown destination.
--Umberto Eco, 1988, Foucault's Pendulum, p. 122 Sep 29, 2008