[F. voiture:—L. vectūra, f. vect-, ppl. stem of vehĕre to convey. Cf. VETTURA.] A carriage or conveyance; a vehicle.
1698. W. King, trans. Sorbière’s Journ. Lond., 6. I drew these Surprising Conclusions. First that a Hackney is a miserable Voiture [etc.].
1698. M. Lister, Journ. Paris (1699), 13. Hackneys and Chairs, which here are the most nasty and miserable Voiture that can be.
1716. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to C’tess of Mar, 3 Aug. I … went in the long-boat to Helvoetsluys, where we had voitures to carry us to the Brill.
1750. H. Walpole, in Phil. Trans., XLVII. 46. Having caused an easy voiture to be made, I undertook the journey in it.
1779. Warner, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1844), IV. 32. But it rained hard, and I could get no voiture till I was forced to go to my engagement with Lady Lambert.
1814. Sporting Mag., XLIV. 60. To say a few words, in the way of compliment, to the driver of another voiture.
1840. Arnold, in Life & Corr. (1844), II. App. C. 418. We are again in voiture, going along the edge of the sea in the port of Naples.
b. transf. and fig.
1718. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Abbé Conti, 31 July. I hired an ass (the only voiture to be had there).
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 347. This was the voiture with which they conveyed themselves quite down to the sea, and one of these boats it was that we spied … coming to us in the bay.
1746. Chesterf., Lett., 9 Oct. (1774), I. 197. In this journey, the understanding is the voiture that must carry you through.
