Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A light carriage with two or four low wheels and a collapsible top.
- noun A top for this or a similar carriage.
- noun A woman's folding bonnet of the late 1700s.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A primitive one-horse springless cart of the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, house-chairs being used for seats. It is still used to a limited extent.
- noun A light carriage with low wheels, either open or covered with a folding top which can be let down at pleasure.
- noun The folding hood or top usually fitted to such a carriage. Specifically called a calash-top.—3. A hood in the form of a calash-top worn by women in the eighteenth century and until about 1810.
- To furnish with a calash.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A light carriage with low wheels, having a top or hood that can be raised or lowered, seats for inside, a separate seat for the driver, and often a movable front, so that it can be used as either an open or a closed carriage.
- noun In Canada, a two-wheeled, one-seated vehicle, with a calash top, and the driver's seat elevated in front.
- noun A hood or top of a carriage which can be thrown back at pleasure.
- noun A hood, formerly worn by ladies, which could be drawn forward or thrown back like the top of a carriage.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A sort of light 'convertible'
carriage with a folding hood.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the folding hood of a horse-drawn carriage
- noun a woman's large folded hooped hood; worn in the 18th century
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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To lessen the obligation, however, my calash is not yet come to the door.
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It was called a calash, and was constructed of green silk outside and white silk within, reeved upon cane, similar in fashion to the 'uglies,' which, at the present day,
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, May, 1862 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various
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We came away in a calash, that is, my Master and the Chaplain, riding at their Ease in that vehicle, while I trotted behind on a little
The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 2 of 3 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... George Augustus Sala 1861
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"The calash is his," returned the other, shaking his head and walking quietly away from the stand.
Pathfinder; or, the inland sea James Fenimore Cooper 1820
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[4] A calash was a light, four-wheeled carriage with a folding top.
Letter from Robert Carter to William Camp, October 14, 1727 1727
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I could have little hope of protection from the Pope, for he was become quite another man, never spoke one word of truth, and continually amused himself with mere trifles, insomuch that one day he proposed a reward for whoever found out a Latin word for "calash," and spent seven or eight days in examining whether "mosco" came from "muses," or "musts" from
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I could have little hope of protection from the Pope, for he was become quite another man, never spoke one word of truth, and continually amused himself with mere trifles, insomuch that one day he proposed a reward for whoever found out a Latin word for "calash," and spent seven or eight days in examining whether "mosco" came from "muses," or "musts" from
The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz — Complete [Historic court memoirs] Jean Fran��ois Paul de Gondi de Retz 1646
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I could have little hope of protection from the Pope, for he was become quite another man, never spoke one word of truth, and continually amused himself with mere trifles, insomuch that one day he proposed a reward for whoever found out a Latin word for "calash," and spent seven or eight days in examining whether "mosco" came from "muses," or "musts" from
The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz — Volume 4 [Historic court memoirs] Jean Fran��ois Paul de Gondi de Retz 1646
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"calash," a big bonnet with rattans stitched in so it would easily move back and forward.
Memories and Anecdotes Kate Sanborn 1878
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In the style of the times, whenever Rafaela went to church, she insisted on being taken in her four-wheeled carriage (calash) rather than walking!
El Fuerte in Sinaloa, Mexico, was once the capital of Arizona 2009
reesetee commented on the word calash
Looks like this.
November 14, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word calash
Or... "Two-wheeled, horse-drawn carts known as calashes continually came and went."
--Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, 2
May 1, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word calash
David Crystal writes of a toll-board sign in Porthmadog in Wales from the early nineteenth century, which begins thus: "For every Horse or other Beast of Draught drawing any Coach, Sociable, Berlin, Landau, Chariot, Vis-a-Vis, Chaise, Calash, Chais-marine, Curricle, Chair, Gig, Whisky, Caravan, Hearse, Litter, Waggon, Wain, Cart, Dray, or other Carriage, any Sum not exceeding One Shilling:"
(By Hook or By Crook, p 38)
December 15, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word calash
Well, I knew what this word meant in 2008 but had since forgotten. Rediscovered it today, thus:
"Certainly one finds the most and greatest elegance on Tauentzienstrasse; the Kurfürstendamm is delightful with its trees and calashes."
Berlin Stories by Robert Walser, translated by Susan Bernofsky, p 19 of the NYRB paperback
May 8, 2012