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caravan

 [kar-uh-van]   Example Sentences Origin

car·a·van

   [kar-uh-van] noun, verb, -vaned or -vanned, -van·ing or -van·ning.
noun
1.
a group of travelers, as merchants or pilgrims, journeying together for safety in passing through deserts, hostile territory, etc.
2.
any group traveling in or as if in a caravan and using a specific mode of transportation, as pack animals or motor vehicles: a caravan of trucks; a camel caravan.
3.
a large covered vehicle for conveying passengers, goods, a sideshow, etc.; van.
4.
Chiefly British. a house on wheels; trailer.
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verb (used with object)
5.
to carry in or as if in a caravan: Trucks caravaned food and medical supplies to the flood's survivors.

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to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.
to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.
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verb (used without object)
6.
to travel in or as if in a caravan: They caravaned through Egypt.
Origin:
1590–1600; earlier carovan < Italian carovana < Persian kārwān

Related forms
car·a·van·ist, noun

Synonyms
1. parade, procession, train, cavalcade, band.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Example Sentences
  • The pall of fatality that hangs over this motley caravan provides an undercurrent of mordant comedy.
  • One of his school-friends was a gypsy, whose family lived in a horse-drawn caravan.
  • Follow a caravan across the unforgiving desert, an impossible journey without camels.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
caravan (ˈkærəˌvæn)
 
—n
1.  a.  US and Canadian name: trailer a large enclosed vehicle capable of being pulled by a car or lorry and equipped to be lived in
 b.  (as modifier): a caravan site
2.  (esp in some parts of Asia and Africa) a company of traders or other travellers journeying together, often with a train of camels, through the desert
3.  a group of wagons, pack mules, camels, etc, esp travelling in single file
4.  a large covered vehicle, esp a gaily coloured one used by Romany Gypsies, circuses, etc
 
—vb , -vans, -vanning, -vanned
5.  (Brit) (intr) to travel or have a holiday in a caravan
 
[C16: from Italian caravana, from Persian kārwān]
 
'caravanning
 
—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

caravan
1588, from M.Fr. caravane, from O.Fr. carouan, picked up in the Crusades from Pers. karwan "group of desert travelers." Used in Eng. for "vehicle" 17c., esp. for a covered cart. In modern British use, often a rough equivalent of the U.S. mobile home.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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