DCHP-1 Online

train ((2)) 2 [< Cdn F traîne sauvage toboggan; cp. traineau]

• 1a 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. Also spelled traine.

  See also: cariole ((n.)) (def. 2a and picture)  traineau  

  • 1789  (1890)  I make traines, bend snow-shoe frames, and with perseverance, I'll perhaps learn to handle the couteau croche.
  • 1801  (1897)  I sent two men to Portage la Prairie with two trains and four dogs.
  • 1918  A train, or traineau, was a sledge made of a thin board, ten or twelve inches wide, and eight or ten feet long. It was bent up at one end, by which it was dragged on the snow or ice.
  • 1933  These traines were usually drawn by dogs, but at this post horses were used.

• 1b n. a number of sled dogs (2 to 20) hitched to a sled or toboggan.

  See also: dog-team  

  • 1801  (1897)  Another of my men brought in six young wolves he had found in one hole; they were very tame, and we proposed to keep them for the trains, as they are of the large species.
  • 1820  (1938)  A Thousand to fifteen hundred livres is no unusual price for a good train, say 3 dogs.
  • 1956  . . . eating nothing but pail candy, he once ran a hundred-mile relay race against four trains of dogs.

• 1c n. Hist. a dog-sled and the dog-team together.

  See also: dog-train (def. 1)  

  • 1806  (1960)  . . . the first trip he made . . . on the snow with trains.
  • 1858  (1860)  I engaged a half-breed of the name of Cline . . . to organize my trains.
  • 1939  Back in the train age again, Brownie strained in his collar. . . .

• 2 n. Obs. a simple wheel-less conveyance originally used by the Indians and made of two poles on which was a platform or net for holding a load, the contrivance being pulled by a dog. [See picture at travois.]

  See also: travois (def. 1 and picture)  

  • 1834  (1955)  . . . seven of 8 [Indians] had been badly wounded which they dragged away on trains to their village.
  • 1859  (1870)  A dog happened to pass drawing a "train" after the common Indian fashion.