DCHP-1 Online

elevator † 

• 1 n. a device, especially an endless chain of cups or buckets, used to move grain from one level to another.

  • 1864  (1955)  By means of elevators a barge can be loaded or unloaded in an hour . . .

• 2a n. Esp. West a specially designed building equipped to unload grain from trucks, carry it to a storage area, and, when required, transfer it to railway cars.

  See also: country elevator  

  • 1902  (1956)  At some of the stations three or four elevators were in course of erection.
  • 1956  The mind that visioned this unending chain / Of elevators rising from the wheat / And sleepy hamlets sprawling on the plain.

• 2b n. a large grain elevator which serves as a storage bin at a trans-shipping point where carloads of grain are received from country elevators.

  See also: terminal elevator  

  • 1868  Another important branch runs from Komoka to Sarnia, on Lake Huron, where and at Hamilton the Company owns fine grain stores and elevators.
  • 1922  Canada's system of handling grain through elevators is being investigated by delegates from South Africa and India.

• 2c n. the people who own and operate a grain elevator; an elevator company.

  • 1907  Five elevators in Leduc combined to sandbag the farmer.
  • 1958  For instance a leading elevator here handled only a few bushels of barley. Now one such elevator alone ships out more than 140,000 bushels of this crop.