DCHP-1 Online

cariole ((n.)) [< Cdn F carriole]

• • The term cariole seems to have been used for a wide variety of horse-drawn sleighs, becoming a common word from the Maritimes to the Pacific Coast:
  • The extension to the one-man sleigh drawn by dogs seems to have taken place very early (see 1791 quote, def. 1a).

  • 1808  (1809)  The cariole, in short, is the name for all sorts of vehicles used in winter, from a market cart, up to a state coach.

• 1a n. originally, a light open sleigh used in French Canada, drawn by one or two horses (sometimes by dogs), and having a seat for the driver.

  See also: cabriole  

  • 1765  To be sold at Publick Vendue . . . a Horse, Cariolle and Harness, and sundry other Articles too tedious to mention.
  • 1791  (1911)  Mastiffs draw loads of provisions, and very small dogs carrioles, with children in them.
  • 1816  [Some were] in little carioles; (a few boards nailed together and fastened to a horse). . . .
  • 1964  [Caption] A single carriole said to have been made by Derocher of Montreal about 1890.

• 1b n. a light passenger sleigh usually accommodating two passengers and a driver, ordinarily drawn by two horses and widely used for pleasure in many parts of Canada from the 18th to the early 20th century.

  See also: carryall (def. 1)  covered carriole  horse cariole  

  • 1769  (1931)  There is something exceedingly agreeable in the whirl of the carrioles, which fly along at the rate of twenty miles an hour. . . .
  • 1861  Should there not also be a rule for carrioles meeting on the highway, as to which side should be taken?
  • 1914  The bridal party drove in carioles, another reason for not celebrating weddings in the summer months, as it would not be becoming to see twenty or thirty well-dressed couples going to church in squeaking Red River carts.
  • 1965  In La Perade [Quebec] fur-coated cariole drivers sing as they drive the fishing parties to and from . . . the fishing huts.

• 2a n. 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: carryall (def. 2a)  dog cariole  dog-toboggan  Hudson Bay toboggan  tabanask  toboggan ((n.))  (def. 4)  toboggan car(r)iole  toboggan-sled  train boss  (def. 1a)  traineau (def. 2)  

  • 1761  (1901)  I discerned a cariole, or sledge, moving our way, and immediately sent my guide to the driver. . . .
  • 1844  They have been building a cariole, a light sled to be drawn by three dogs; in these one is laced and secured.
  • 1929  Each officer had his "carriole," a sled of birch boards, twelve feet long, the sides covered with parchment skins and handsomely painted. Four dogs went to a sled.
  • 1966  Six white Mackenzie River malemutes would race over the snow, drawing a flame-red carriole decked with long colored streamers

• 2b n. a similar sled pulled by a horse.

  See also: toboggan ((n.))  (def. 3)  

  • 1801  (1897)  Went to the hills with a horse and carriole, low and surrounded with parchment buffalo skin; it weighed only twenty pounds, but was large enough for one person and his bedding.
  • 1927  Mr. McKay used his train of "husky dogs," while the Bishop was conveyed . . . in a carriole or toboggan, drawn by a horse

• 3 n. the upper framework and leather or canvas sides of the sled; the structure mounted on the toboggan.

  See also: carryall (def. 3)  

  • 1820  (1823)  The cariole used by the traders is merely a covering of leather for the lower part of the body, affixed to the common sledge, which is painted and ornamented according to the taste of the proprietor.
  • 1944  A carriole . . . is made with a frame of sticks and ropes fastened to a toboggan. Over this a canvas is spread to form a bath-tub shaped affair.