DCHP-1 Online
berline berlin, burline [< Cdn F, adapted from the name of a wheeled vehicle (a kind of sedan) < Berlin, Prussia] 
1 n. Hist. a rude winter vehicle improvised from a sled or toboggan by erecting a framework to provide a backrest and to support a wrap-around cover and roof, pulled by a horse or by dogs and first used by the French Canadians.
- 1829 The Burline is the travelling sleigh of the Canadians; it is just large enough to hold two comfortably. . . . It is on low runners, and not easily upset; it has horns by which the driver balances it; it will glide over very rough roads and untrod snows.
- 1841 No cariole, train, berline, or other winter carriage . . . shall be used unless the horse or horses all be harnessed thereto on the manner above mentioned.
- 1955 The wealthy . . . rode majestically around in carioles while their ruder, poorer neighbors raced by in the habitant berlines.
2 n. North in the North and Northwest, a light tobogganlike dog sled into which a single passenger or a load is laced securely, the dog-driver following behind.
See also: cariole ((n.)) (def. 2) dog cariole
- 1896 I made an improvised, or what was termed a "Berlin," out of my wrapper and sled lashings. . . .
- 1938 By the simple expedient of erecting two cross-pieces at the rear of my toboggan to form a back-rest, and by utilizing the moose-skin wrapper for a cover, Nazie had succeeded in converting my sled into a berlin. . . .
- 1829 The Burline is the travelling sleigh of the Canadians; it is just large enough to hold two comfortably. . . . It is on low runners, and not easily upset; it has horns by which the driver balances it; it will glide over very rough roads and untrod snows.