DCHP-1 Online

traineau -eaux [< Cdn F < F traineau sled ; cp. train²] Hist.

• 1 n. a low runnerless sled used in early Quebec for hauling goods to market and for similar purposes.

  See also: train ((2))  train ((1))  

  • 1791  (1911)  I was amused by seeing several dogs of all sizes drawing traineaux or sleds with wood.
  • 1845  The common country traineau, as used by the Habitans, is open to the same objection; and from the floor of the vehicle, if I may so express myself, being so close to the surface over which it passes the loose snow is driven before it in heaps, and the hillocks so formed are termed by the Native cahôts.
  • 1903  Traineaux drawn by French ponies, and toboggans, loaded with furs and drawn by several dogs in tandem, were frequently seen in the streets [of Montreal]. . . .
  • 1928  There was a certain disadvantage, too, in the traineau, where there was only room for one, while Jean walked or ran behind, guiding the dogs.

• 2 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 picture at cariole ((n.)).]

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

  • 1820  (1823)  We passed . . . Train Lake, which received its name from being the place where the traders procured the birch to make their sledges, or traineaux.
  • 1888  (1890)  The dogs which draw the traineaux are also fed with them, one dried fish being the daily allowance for each dog.
  • 1931  At the tail of the gorgeous procession came . . . a dog team hitched to a luxuriously appointed traineau, driven by a Hudson's Bay trapper in all his glory.
  • 1933  A traine or traineau in the Northwest was a sledge or sleigh about seven feet in length, the front end of which was turned up in a picturesque fashion to enable it to pass over bushes and low obstructions.