[Fr., ad. It. banchetta, dim. of banca ‘bench, shelf.’ Formerly anglicized as banket, -quet.]
1. A raised way running along the inside of a rampart or parapet, or bottom of a trench, on which soldiers stand to fire at the enemy.
1629. S’hertogenbosh, 19. We began to make … Trenches with double bankets or feet benches.
1782. P. Bruce, Mem., I. 28. Six officers … sitting in a row on the banquet, had their legs all shot off.
1877. Kinglake, Crimea, IV. xiii. 311. Korniloff mounted the banquette at the projecting angle of the bastion.
2. The footway of a bridge, or other thoroughfare, when raised above the carriage-way.
1842. in Gwilt.
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Banquette, the name for a side-walk in some of our Southern cities.
3. The long low bench behind the driver in a French ‘diligence’ or omnibus.
1859. All Y. Round, No. 33. 151. A peasant in blue blouse, who was in the banquette with me.
