van
A covered motor vehicle used to carry goods or (normally less than ten) persons, usually roughly cuboid in shape, Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and longer and higher than a car but relatively smaller than a truck/lorry or a bus.
Noun
- A covered motor vehicle used to carry goods or (normally less than ten) persons, usually roughly cuboid in shape, Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and longer and higher than a car but relatively smaller than a truck/lorry or a bus.
- While Santa Monica has a longstanding prohibition against public camping that includes living in vehicles, the van rental business has been a problem in Venice for years. […] Organizations that provide safe parking...
- Carbon emissions from vans in the UK have risen by 63% since 1990, new analysis shows, as cars are getting cleaner. While more people are opting to drive electric or plug-in hybrid cars, van drivers still prefer diesel...
- An enclosed railway vehicle for transport of goods, such as a boxcar/box van.
- A light wagon, either covered or open, used by tradesmen and others for the transportation of goods.
- A large towable vehicle equipped for the repair of structures that cannot easily be moved.
- Designed to be fully mobile and self-contained, the complete equipment includes an air-conditioned van containing all necessary electronic gear and a flat bed trailer in which missiles, jet engines and other large...
Origin
Short for caravan.
Forms
Derived
armored van baggage van box van brake van camper van car-body van conversion van cube van delivery van detector van divvy van dollar van driving van trailer e-van ferry van gas van goods van guard's van ice cream van loony van luggage van Luton van motor-van moving van
Noun Entry 2
- A fan or other contrivance, such as a sieve, for winnowing grain.
- with strange amaze / A shepherd meeting thee, the oar surveys, / And names a van (Book XI) - 1726, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, The Odyssey:
- A wing with which the air is beaten.
- So Satan fell; and ſtrait a fiery Globe / Of Angels on full ſail of wing flew nigh, / Who on their plumy Vans receiv'd him ſoft […] - 1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To...
- He wheeled in air, and stretched his vans in vain; / His vans no longer could his flight sustain. - 1717, John Dryden, Ovid's Metamorphoses, book XII:
- Because these wings are no longer wings to fly / But merely vans to beat the air[…] - 1930, T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday:
Origin
From Latin vannus (“a van, or fan for winnowing grain”): compare French van and English fan, winnow. Doublet of fan.
Forms
Related
Noun abbreviation, alt of
- Clipping of vanguard.
- Ten thousand thousand Ensignes high advanc'd, / Standards, and Gonfalons twixt Van and Reare / Streame in the Aire, and for distinction serve - 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, book 5, lines 588–590:
- Then a bumper to the Queen led the van of our good wishes, another to the Church Established, a third was left to the whim of the toaster[…] - 1698, Ned Ward, The London Spy:
- As for the guides, they were debarred from the pleasure of discourse, the one being placed in the van, and the other obliged to bring up the rear. - 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume...
Origin
Shortening of vanguard.
Forms
Noun business, mining
- A shovel used in cleansing ore.
Origin
From Cornish.
Forms
Verb Entry 5
- To transport in a van or similar vehicle (especially of horses).
- I have to have a license to own them, a license to train them, my jockey has to have a license to ride them, the van company must have a license to van them, and the black shoe man must have a license to shoe them. -...
- [They] had their own horses, but they hadn't bothered to van them over to Pine Hollow for this outing. - 1999, Bonnie Bryant, Changing Leads, page 53:
- Of law enforcement: to arrest (not necessarily in a van; derived from party van).
- One Anon explained the reason for this, saying: "As for the domains, they were transferred to Ryan after some of us got vanned so he can keep the network up. What he did certainly wasn't the plan." (Getting "vanned"...
- He later told CW that he had been "v&" or "vanned" by the police, and he expressed surprise that the police showed him detailed transcripts of his conversations. - 2012, FBI names, arrests Anon who infiltrated its...
- But not before someone supposedly forwarded all the information onto the FBI. In a last-ditch effort to avoid getting "vanned," Naratto tried to put the memie back in the bottle - 2013, Redditor Confesses to Murder with...
Forms
Related
Derived
Verb business, mining
- To wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel.