charabanc

• char-à-banc (obsolete)

Borrowed from French char-à-bancs (literally “carriage with benches”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈʃæ.ɹə.bæŋ(k)/

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charabanc (plural charabancs)

1. (Britain, historical) A horse-drawn, and then later, motorized omnibus with open sides, and often, no roof.

   Synonym: (short form) chara

   • 1931, Francis Beeding, “2/2”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps‎:

     A little further on, to the right, was a large garage, where the charabancs stood, half in and half out of the yard.

   • 1968, “Happiness Stan”, in Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, performed by Small Faces:

     And full of colored dreams / Deep inside a rainbow / Lived Happiness Stan / In a small Victorian charabanc

   • 2006 Aug 7 & 14, John Updike, “Late Works”, in The New Yorker, page 70:

     The cumbersome though finely painted charabanc of the late James style is pulled swaying along by a frisky pony of a plot farcical and romantic.

2. (Britain, old-fashioned) A bus, especially one hired by groups for pleasure outings, what was later called a coach.
   • 2023 February 22, “Stop & Examine”, in RAIL, number 977, page 71:

     Mum had worked there as a teenager and once recalled her duty of having to meet the charabancs that brought the well-heeled to the baths from Droitwich station before the war.

3. (Britain, informal) A derisive term for a car, bus, train or other vehicle that is poor quality, slow or overcrowded.

charabanc (third-person singular simple present charabancs, present participle charabancing, simple past and past participle charabanced)

1. (rare, transitive, intransitive) To travel or convey by charabanc.

• charabanc on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Michael Quinion (1996–2023), “Charabanc”, in World Wide Words.

Borrowed from French char-à-bancs (“a carriage with benches”).

• IPA^(key): /sjarəbanɡ/, [ɕɑɑˈb̥ɑŋ]

charabanc c (singular definite charabancen or charabanc'en, plural indefinite charabancer or charabanc'er)

1. charabanc