Definitions

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

  • noun A baby carriage.
  • noun Chiefly New England A small dinghy having a flat, snub-nosed bow.
  • noun A flatbottom boat used chiefly in the Baltic Sea as a barge.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A perambulator.
  • noun A sort of push-cart for carrying milk on a route to customers.
  • noun A flat-bottomed boat or lighter, used in the Netherlands and the Baltic ports for loading and unloading merchant vessels.
  • noun Milit., a similar barge or lighter mounted with guns, and used as a floating battery.

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

  • noun (Naut.) See praam.
  • noun a perambulator{3}; -- British informal shortened form.

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

  • noun UK, Australia, New Zealand A small vehicle, usually covered, in which a newborn baby is pushed around in a lying position; a perambulator.
  • noun nautical, historical A flat-bottomed barge used on shallow shores to convey cargo to and from ships that cannot enter the harbour.
  • noun nautical, historical A similar barge used as platform for cannons in shallow waters which seagoing warships cannot enter.
  • noun A type of dinghy with a flat bow.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a small vehicle with four wheels in which a baby or child is pushed around

Etymologies

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

[Shortening and alteration of perambulator.]

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

[Dutch praam, flatbottom boat, from Middle Dutch praem, from Czech prám; see per in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Shortening of perambulator.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Dutch praam ("a flat-bottomed boat").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pram.

Examples

  • A woman leavers a child in pram outside a chemist's shop and goes in.

    TV Film of the Week: Lost 2008

  • A woman leavers a child in pram outside a chemist's shop and goes in.

    Archive 2008-09-01 2008

  • Throwing the toys out of the pram is putting it mildly but this is censorship by any other name and of the worst possible kind.

    Well, well, well indeed 2006

  • Throwing the toys out of the pram is putting it mildly but this is censorship by any other name and of the worst possible kind.

    48 entries from November 2006 2006

  • Throwing the toys out of the pram is putting it mildly but this is censorship by any other name and of the worst possible kind.

    Well, well, well indeed 2006

  • Don's eyes widened when he saw that it was a Martian's "pram" - the self-propelled personal environment without which a Martian cannot live either on Earth or Venus.

    Between Planets Heinlein, Robert A. 1951

  • * rant over - picks up toys, puts them back in pram*

    Today 2005

  • Throwing your toys out of the pram is the most you have managed to do.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008

  • We had a rough time getting the stuff away undamaged by the sea, but the pram was a wonderful sea-boat and we took it in turns to work her through the surf until everything was away.

    South with Scott Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans Mountevans 1918

  • I don't know how many Norah turned – but when Dad and I got to the spot she was sitting on a thick mat of grass, laughing like one o'clock, and the pram was about half a mile away on the flat with its wheels in the air!

    A Little Bush Maid 1910

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • For AmE use baby carriage or the more modern stroller

    April 18, 2011