DCHP-1 Online

travois [< Cdn F (dial.var. of travail) < F travail one of the shafts by which a wheeled vehicle is drawn] Hist.

• 1 n. 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.]

  See also: dog travail  dog travois  train ((2)) (def. 2)  travail (def. 2)  

  • 1793  (1933)  [They make each Dog haul a trunk[?] (made of two sticks tied close together right over the dogs head, the other end which drags upon the ground as far asunder as a pair of Cart wheels, upon which they put from 50 to 100 lbs weight according to the dog's strength) both summer and winter.]
  • 1888  We kept overtaking and passing . . . women and men . . . dogs also with "travoies" carrying smaller loads.
  • 1960  They harnessed dogs as draft-animals, to draw the travois, a device made of trailing poles held together with webbing.
  • 1962  The procession began with the road-breakers, a group who marched first to tramp down the snow for the dogs, who followed drawing the family possessions on travois.

• 2 n. a larger conveyance of similar design, drawn by a horse or pony, the shafts often being teepee poles. [See picture.]

  See also: horse travail(le)  travail (def. 1)  

  • 1888  We kept overtaking and passing parties of them, women and men, astride on their ponies with baggage behind them, on the "travoie" . . . .
  • 1927  As they were pulling down their lodges, they were attacked by the followers of Crow's Dance, who fired guns, cut the lodges, upset the travois, killed nineteen dogs, and knocked the men down.
  • 1963  We knew our women would find our trail and follow with the travois ponies.

• 3a n. any of a number of similar simple drags.

  • 1897  Another conveyance which is highly recommended by those who have used it is a species of travois which is manufactured here for use instead of packsaddles.
  • 1903  . . . another barrel was needed for gathering the sweet material. This barrel was usually fastened tightly to a "trauvoy" or "jumper."
  • 1935  ". . . Some of these guns are so heavy that they are drawn by horses on strong travois: when they speak it is like thunder, and they will kill more than two miles away."

• 3b n. Lumbering a kind of horse- or ox-drawn drag consisting of two poles or shafts bent so that their ends rode flat along the ground, 4 cross-pieces being fixed to these poles to serve as abed for a platform to carry a load or the butt of a log being skidded to the bank.

  See also: bogan ((2))  crotch  jumper ((1)) (def. 1b)  

  • 1961  Spencer Allen forwarded lumberman's supplies over this road in the early 1840's by means of a "travois."

• 4 n. a logging road or skid road along which a travois (def. 3b) was pulled.

  • 1928  August was not done when the axemen and sawyers started into the woods, as usual, over the travoys which radiated from the village of Travoy and up the Coulogne and Black Rivers for the cuttings.