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palanquin
(India, chiefly historical) An enclosed human-borne litter or sedan chair, a large box with a chair, couch, or bed raised on horizontal poles and used as a mode of transport.
💬 Quotations
'Sedan-chair! Put your 'ead in a bag. That was a palanquin. Don't yer know a palanquin when you see it?' said Ortheris with great scorn... What befell at that interview in the lonely pay-shed by the side of the half-built embankment, only a few hundred coolies know, and their tale is a confusing one, running thus... 'There was a palanquin, for the up-keep of which we were forced to pay nine-tenths of our monthly wage. On such mulctings Dearsley Sahib allowed us to make obeisance to him before the palanquin. What could we do? We were poor men. He took full half of our wages. Will the Government repay us those moneys?...'
(loosely) A vehicle open or closed, human or animal-borne, particularly (historical) in colonial Asian contexts.
📑 Synonyms:
litter