DCHP-1 Online

sled

• 1 n. a sled drawn by a team of dogs. [See picture at dog-sled.]

  See also: dog-sled (and picture)  sledge  

  • 1577  (1889)  They . . . keepe certeine doggs not much unlike Wolues, whiche they yoke . . . to a sled. . . .
  • 1778  (1934)  The ice being rough and the snow deep [I] was obliged to haul our sleds the dogs not being able.
  • 1858  (1863)  It was with great difficulty . . . that we got the sleds up the bank, which was 240 feet high. . . .
  • 1956  Still the teams continued to arrive. The grind of sled runners, the pit-patter of dogs' feet and the swish of the long whips.

• 2 n. Obs. 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. 2a)  

  • 1784  (1954)  Anthony King sewing sleds and making traces for the Dogs.

• 3 n. a low sledlike contrivance, sometimes having shaped log-runners, used for removing stones from fields and for other heavy hauling.

  See also: stoneboat (and picture)  

  • 1871  (1872)  Every man can handle an axe, mend his waggon, and build his own "sled"--a kind of rough sleigh, for hauling timber and other heavy stuff.
  • 1933  (1934)  The Black Hawk . . . was built on Butler's Hill, some distance from the shore. It was conveyed to the shore by fifty oxen, after first being lowered onto a huge sled.

• 4 n. North any enclosed structure on bobs or runners functioning as part of a cat-train, whether for the crew or for perishable freight.

  See also: caboose (def. 5b)  

  • 1952  Tractors pulled large sleds slowly over this winter road to Hay River settlement. . . .
  • 1957  A cat-swing is a convoy of three tractors and their sleds. A bunkhouse for the men is among the cargo-laden sleds.