VAN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Van

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noun

Van n. The front of an army; the first line or leading column; also, the front line or foremost division of a fleet, either in sailing or in battle. "Standards and gonfalons, twixt van and rear, Stream in the air."

Van n. (Mining) A shovel used in cleansing ore.

Van n.

A light wagon, either covered or open, used by tradesmen and others for the transportation of goods. (Eng.)

A large covered wagon for moving furniture, etc., also for conveying wild beasts, etc., for exhibition.

A closed railway car for baggage. See the Note under Car, 2. (Eng.)

Van n.

A fan or other contrivance, as a sieve, for winnowing grain.

A wing with which the air is beaten. (Archaic) "(/Angels) on their plumy vans received him. " "He wheeled in air, and stretched his vans in vain; His vans no longer could his flight sustain."

verb

Van v. t. (Mining) To wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel.

Van v. t. To fan, or to cleanse by fanning; to winnow. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Van'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Van" Quotes from Famous Books

... stand on the shelf that holds their favorites. It is not only one of the great short stories, but one of the shortest of great-stories. It is quite worthy of use in company with Dickens' Christmas Carol, Henry van Dyke's The Other Wise Man, and Thomas Nelson Page's Santa Claus's Partner, at the Christmas season, and it has the advantages of extreme brevity, a fresh breeziness of style, surprise in the plot, ...

— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry

... disputes and temperamental incompatibilities. His anger betrayed him a coarse, ill-bred man. The little car quickened under his reproaches. There were some moments of hope, dashed by the necessity of going dead slow behind an interloping van. Sir Richmond did not notice the outstretched arm of the driver of the van, and stalled his engine for a second time. The electric starter refused its ...

— The Secret Places of the Heart • H. G. Wells

... individual volition. The evolution which has brought us up to this standpoint has worked by a cosmic law of averages; it has been a process in which the individual himself has not taken a conscious part. But because he is what he is, and leads the van of the evolutionary procession, if man is to evolve further, it can now only be by his own conscious co-operation with the law which has brought him up to the standpoint where he is able to realize that ...

— The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science • Thomas Troward

... George, who had been in the van, fell back to say that from the indications he believed they were now not more than five miles above Friar's Point and that Erastus ought to be put ashore at the first ...

— Motor Boat Boys Mississippi Cruise - or, The Dash for Dixie • Louis Arundel

... Van Berger was silenced for a moment. "What do you say? She does not love him. And you approve of ...

— The Idol of Paris • Sarah Bernhardt

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