hansom cab
(ˈhænsəm)
Also short hansom.
[f. Hansom, surname of an architect who in 1834 patented a vehicle with some of the essential features of this cab.]
A low-hung two-wheeled cabriolet holding two persons inside, the driver being mounted on a dickey or elevated seat behind, and the reins going over the roof.
| 1852 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 343 A flying hansom cab, which cut along almost at railway speed. 1882 W. Ballantine Exper. ii. 20, I have lived to see an archbishop in a hansom cab! 1884 M{supc}Carthy Eng. under Gladstone xiii. 250 Joseph Aloysius Hansom, who invented the Hansom cab, died this year [1882]. |
| β 1847 Punch XIII. 193 The Hansoms were rattling. 1870 Disraeli Lothair xxvi. (D.), He hailed a cruising hansom..‘'Tis the gondola of London’, said Lothair, as he sprang in. 1893 19th Cent. Mar. 470 The hansom as we know it bears little resemblance to the cumbrous vehicle designed by the inventor. |
b. attrib. as
hansom cab-driver,
hansom-cabman. (
β)
hansom-driver;
hansom-borne adj.| 1849 Thackeray Pendennis II. xxxvi. 346 The cabman, although a Hansom cabman, said thank you for the gratuity which was put into his hand. a 1860 Alb. Smith Med. Student (1861) 17 Dashing up to the door as Hansom cab⁓drivers are wont to do. |
Hence
ˈhansom (
hansom it)
v., (
cf. cab v.,
coach v.), to travel or go in a hansom.
hansoˈmeer (
nonce-wd.), the driver of a hansom.
| 1890 Baring-Gould Arminell xli, To think that I..a raging Democrat, should be hansoming it to and fro between my Ladies and Honourables. 1893 F. F. Moore Gray Eye or So III. 50 Driving as fast as the hansomeer thought consistent with public safety. 1894 R. Broughton Beginner xi, One slippery January morning as she hansoms it along. |