Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A frame slung between trailing poles and pulled by a dog or horse, formerly used by Plains Indians as a conveyance for goods and belongings.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See dray, 3.
  • noun Same as travail.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A primitive vehicle, common among the North American Indians, usually two trailing poles serving as shafts and bearing a platform or net for a load.
  • noun Northern U. S. & Canada A logging sled.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A traditional North American Indian sled-like vehicle, pulled by person, dog, or horse.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Canadian French, alteration of obsolete travoy, from travail, cart-shaft, from French, frame for restraining horses, alteration of Late Latin tripālium, device with three stakes, probably from Latin tripālis, having three stakes; see travail.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Canadian French, from an alteration of travail (etymology 2), from Medieval Latin trepalium ("instrument of torture"), probably a calque from Ancient Greek. See πάσσαλος (passalos, "peg").

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Examples

  • In smooth country, and when the sick or wounded person is not too badly off, the Indian and trapper "travois" or horse litter may be employed.

    Pluck on the Long Trail Boy Scouts in the Rockies 1911

  • "travois," and the great pony herds, to the fastnesses of the Big Horn; and now comes the opportunity for which an old Indian-fighter has been anxiously waiting.

    The Deserter Charles King 1888

  • On the horizon, mountain ranges, constantly in sight, were the place for the plains tribes to cut poles for travois and lodge, and to find the best wood for bows.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • On the horizon, mountain ranges, constantly in sight, were the place for the plains tribes to cut poles for travois and lodge, and to find the best wood for bows.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • Indians used the younger, slenderest trees as tipi and travois poles.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • Indians used the younger, slenderest trees as tipi and travois poles.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • I drag it out with my drag rope or if it's too big I find a couple stong sticks and make a travois.

    How do YOU get your deer out of the woods to the truck? I use a Cabelas game hauler. 2009

  • Indians used the younger, slenderest trees as tipi and travois poles.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

  • I drag it out with my drag rope or if it's too big I find a couple stong sticks and make a travois.

    How do YOU get your deer out of the woods to the truck? I use a Cabelas game hauler. 2009

  • On the horizon, mountain ranges, constantly in sight, were the place for the plains tribes to cut poles for travois and lodge, and to find the best wood for bows.

    Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011

Comments

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  • A travois (Canadian French, from French travail, a frame for restraining horses; also obsolete travoy or travoise) is a frame used by Native Americans, notably the Plains Indians of North America, to drag loads over land. The basic construction consists of a platform or netting mounted on two long poles, lashed in the shape of an elongated isosceles triangle; the frame was dragged with the sharply pointed end forward. Sometimes the blunt end of the frame was stabilized by a third pole bound across the two main poles.

    _Wikipedia

    June 9, 2008

  • In English, it's generally pronounced "trah-VOY", even though strictly speaking it should be "trah-VUAH".

    August 21, 2008

  • A draggin' wagon?

    May 14, 2011