释义 |
▪ I. chaise, n.|ʃeɪz| Also 8 chaiz, (shazess). [c gray][a. mod.F. chaise (chaize Cotgr.), a phonetic alteration of chaire (so Pazis for Paris, etc.), established in the ordinary sense ‘chair’, whence by extension ‘sedan-chair’, and by transference a wheeled vehicle for travelling in. In this later sense alone chaise passed into English, notwithstanding that chair had itself here received the same development (see chair n.1 11, which however was not always an exact synonym of this word, but often used as the name of a particular sort of chaise). (Cathedra, chair, chaise, are thus all forms of the same word.) The vulgar take (ʃeɪz[/c]) for a plural n., and form on it a singular |ʃeɪ| chay, shay. (The change of lingual r to z in French is a phenomenon widely exemplified. It appears fully established at Orleans in 15th c., but did not come down beyond 1620.)] 1. A term applied to various pleasure or travelling carriages, the exact application having varied from time to time: a. A light open carriage for one or two persons, often having a top or calash; those with four wheels resembling the phaeton, those with two the curricle; also loosely used for pleasure carts and light carriages generally. Kersey, Bailey, Ash and Johnson explain chaise as ‘a carriage for pleasure drawn by one horse’; Todd says this was the case formerly, before post-chaises were in request, and defines it as ‘A chaise and pair; a chaise and four: the term of later days for a light vehicle, with four wheels, drawn by two or four horses’.
1701Lond. Gaz. No. 3700/1 The Empress..and the Arch-Dutchesses [were] in open Chaises. 1703Ibid. No. 3945/4 A Leather Body-Coach..and several sorts of Shazesses. 1707Ibid. No. 4390/4 Two Geldings, one a dark-brown..used to a Chaiz. 1708Ibid. No. 4439/4, 2 four wheel'd Chaises. a1719Addison (J.) Instead of the chariot he might have said the chaise of government; for a chaise is driven by the person that sits in it. 1786Trials John Shepherd 40 He was in a one-horse chaise. 1794Felton Carriages (1801) II. 117 The Grasshopper, or three-quarter pannel Chaise, or Whiskey..by some called Quakers' Chaises. Ibid. 121 The Rib chair, or Yarmouth Cart. For lawns or parks these sort of chaises have been mostly used. 1825Hone Every-Day Bk. I. 436 Public pony-chaises. 1858O. W. Holmes Poems (1886) 291 The wonderful one-hoss shay. Mod. vulgarism. The pony-shay (also po' shay = post chaise). b. A carriage for travelling, having a closed body and seated for one to three persons, the driver sitting on one of the horses; more distinctively called a post-chaise, q.v.
1709Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) VI. 474 The chaise he made use of (being wounded in the foot) was found broke to peices. 1716–8Lady M. W. Montague Lett. I. xvi. 52, I never went out of my chaise from Prague to this place. 1749Mrs. Montagu Lett. III. 125 We went out together in a post-chaise. 1773Goldsm. Stoops to conq. ii. i, I'll clap a pair of horses to your chaise. 1837Lytton E. Maltravers 27 In little more than twenty minutes, the chaise was at the door. 1873Morley Rousseau II. 66 He was thrust into a chaise and despatched on the first stage of eight melancholy years of wandering. c. to take chaise: to use a chaise as a means of conveyance. a chaise and pair, four, six: a chaise drawn by a pair, four, six horses.
1704Addison Italy (1766) 23 From Genoa we took chaise for Milan. 1713Steele Englishman No. 21. 139 That gay thing that flies along the Road in a Chaise and Six. 1737Pope Hor. Epist. i. i. 158 The poor..run They know not whither, in a chaise and one. 1782Cowper Gilpin 9 To-morrow is our wedding-day, And we will then repair Unto the Bell at Islington, All in a chaise and pair. 2. attrib. and Comb., as chaise-box, chaise-umbrella; chaise-cart, a light cart suitable for driving in (cf. cart n. 3); chaise-house, a coach-house; chaise-undertaker, -vamper, one who undertakes to renovate chaises, a dealer in second-hand chaises. Also ˈchaiseless a.
1768Sterne Sent. Journ. (1778) II. 185 The hammer in the *chaise-box being of no great use.
1821Cobbett Rur. Rides (1855) I. 29 Riding in a little sort of *chaise-cart.
1794Felton (1801) I. 129 The *chaise coach-box..This kind..may be made to fix on a one-horse *chaise carriage.
Ibid. 202 *Chaise Heads..Heads to phaetons or chaises, etc., are found great conveniences for sheltering from the sun, wind or rain.
1812Examiner 24 Aug. 533/1 It..entered the *chaise-house.
1850Thackeray Pendennis xxxiv, Mrs. Bacon..as yet a *chaiseless woman.
1765Sterne Tr. Shandy vii. xxix, A pert vamping *chaise-undertaker.
Ibid. viii. xxxvii, In selling my chaise, I had sold my remarks along with it, to the *chaise-vamper. ▪ II. chaise, v. Obs. rare. [f. the n.] to chaise it: to go by chaise.
1792W. B. Stevens Jrnl. 28 Sept. (1965) i. 47 Chais'd it to Wirksworth, dined and slept at Winster. 1822Southey Lett. (1856) III. 306, I shall follow your course to Skipton, and chaise it, solo, from thence. ▪ III. chaise obs. form of chase. |