[Shortened f. CARAVAN 4.]
1. A covered vehicle chiefly employed for the conveyance of goods, usually resembling a large wooden box with arched roof and opening from behind, but varying in size (and to some extent in form) according to the use intended.
1829. Lytton, The Disowned, I. iv. 50. Yes, Sir, we have some luggage—came last night by the van.
1855. J. R. Leifchild, Cornwall, 3. The Cornish van is a conveyance both peculiar and interesting. This particular one … resembled very nearly an ordinary covered cart of some length.
1872. C. King, Mountain. Sierra Nev., x. 213. The great van rocked, settled a little—and stuck fast.
b. Felons’ van, prison van. Also ellipt.
1898. [see PRISON sb. 3 a].
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, I. 338. The hour when the Parliament of France had been driven into the felons’ van.
1895. Daily News, 17 May, 8/6. The Gaoler—There is no van between 10.30 in the morning and four in the afternoon.
2. A closed carriage or truck used on railways for conveying passengers’ luggage and the guard of the train, or in goods trains for smaller articles needing protection from the weather.
Freq. with defining terms, as brake-, guard’s, luggage van.
1868. A. K. H. Boyd, Less. Middle Age, 339. Emerging from the carriage door, the pilgrim … hastens to the van at the end of the train.
1885. Law Times, LXXIX. 47/1. The portmanteau and hamper had been put into the van.
3. attrib. and Comb., as van boy, dock, -driver, dweller, harness, load, -man, shunter.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 34. *Van … Boy, Guard.
1883. Pall Mall G., 23 Oct., 7/2. A van boy, seventeen years of age.
1878. F. S. Williams, Midl. Railw., 639. On the left of this platform is the *‘van dock’ in which the vans are standing.
1895. Daily News, 26 Sept., 6/3. A Midland Railway *van driver. Ibid. (1894), 25 Jan., 2/4. The fourth annual meeting of the United Kingdom Showmen’s and *Van Dwellers’ Protection Association.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 4727. *Van harness and cart harness.
1885. L’pool Daily Post, 23 April, 5/2. Countless *vanloads of happy urchins, bent on enjoying their Sunday school treat.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 34. Trap Minder. *Van Man.
1891. Daily News, 21 Sept., 2/7. Vanman of the Glasgow City Parochial Authorities.
1878. F. S. Williams, Midl. Railw., 639. The vans, as they enter the shed, are at once placed under the orders … of *‘van shunters.’
