Definitions

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

  • noun A bed consisting of a wooden frame strung with interlaced cords or webbing, used chiefly in South Asia.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In India, a pallet-bed; the common portable bedstead of the natives, adopted by Europeans.

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

  • noun India A type of common bedstead in India.

Etymologies

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

[Hindi cārpāī and Urdu čārpā’ī, both from Persian cār-pāy, bedstead : cār-, four (from Old Iranian cathru-, four; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots) + pāy, foot (from Middle Persian pāy); see ped- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Urdu چارپای, from Persian چهارپای ("four-footed").

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Examples

  • A charpoy is a bed, and everybody in Rubbulgurh puts one outside, for sociability, in the evening.

    The Story of Sonny Sahib Sara Jeannette Duncan

  • Sitting on a traditional bench of bamboo and rope called a charpoy, Imran patiently wrote details in his notepad while Talat strained to make sense of a cacophony of complaints from the villagers who surrounded them.

    BBC News - Home 2010

  • Sitting on a traditional bench of bamboo and rope called a charpoy, Imran patiently wrote details in his notepad while Talat strained to make sense of a cacophony of complaints from the villagers who surrounded them.

    BBC News - Home 2010

  • Sitting on a traditional bench of bamboo and rope called a charpoy, Imran patiently wrote details in his notepad while Talat strained to make sense of a cacophony of complaints from the villagers who surrounded them.

    BBC News - Home 2010

  • Sitting on a traditional bench of bamboo and rope called a charpoy, Imran patiently wrote details in his notepad while Talat strained to make sense of a cacophony of complaints from the villagers who surrounded them.

    BBC News - Home 2010

  • Sitting on a traditional bench of bamboo and rope called a charpoy, Imran patiently wrote details in his notepad while Talat strained to make sense of a cacophony of complaints from the villagers who surrounded them.

    BBC News - Home 2010

  • Sitting on a traditional bench of bamboo and rope called a charpoy, Imran patiently wrote details in his notepad while Talat strained to make sense of a cacophony of complaints from the villagers who surrounded them.

    BBC News - Home 2010

  • Sitting on a traditional bench of bamboo and rope called a charpoy, Imran patiently wrote details in his notepad while Talat strained to make sense of a cacophony of complaints from the villagers who surrounded them.

    BBC News - Home 2010

  • Sitting on a traditional bench of bamboo and rope called a charpoy, Imran patiently wrote details in his notepad while Talat strained to make sense of a cacophony of complaints from the villagers who surrounded them.

    BBC News - Home 2010

  • Sitting on a traditional bench of bamboo and rope called a charpoy, Imran patiently wrote details in his notepad while Talat strained to make sense of a cacophony of complaints from the villagers who surrounded them.

    BBC News - Home 2010

Comments

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  • "She was given a tent with two charpoys (string beds) and an oil stove outside it on which she had to cook supper while beating off the insects."

    —Annabel Venning, Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present (London: Headline, 2005), 71

    May 5, 2010