van

plural vans

1. A covered motor vehicle used to carry goods or (normally less than ten) persons, usually roughly cuboid in shape, Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and longer and higher than a car but relatively smaller than a truck/lorry or a bus.

   Carbon emissions from vans in the UK have risen by 63% since 1990, new analysis shows, as cars are getting cleaner. While more people are opting to drive electric or plug-in hybrid cars, van drivers still prefer diesel because electric vans are much more expensive with little choice of models.

   2024 June 22, James Tapper, “Carbon emissions from vans still rising as UK drivers cling to diesel”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1 more example

   While Santa Monica has a longstanding prohibition against public camping that includes living in vehicles, the van rental business has been a problem in Venice for years. […] Organizations that provide safe parking locations have limited capacity and are often unable to accommodate the kind of non-operational vans that are being repurposed as makeshift housing.

   2023 May 19, Matthew Hall, “Los Angeles Councilwoman targets “vanlord” industry”, in Santa Monica Daily Press

   Synonyms: minivan, minibus

2. UKAn enclosed railway vehicle for transport of goods, such as a boxcar/box van.
3. datedA light wagon, either covered or open, used by tradesmen and others for the transportation of goods.
4. space flightA large towable vehicle equipped for the repair of structures that cannot easily be moved.

   Designed to be fully mobile and self-contained, the complete equipment includes an air-conditioned van containing all necessary electronic gear and a flat bed trailer in which missiles, jet engines and other large assemblies may be cleaned.

   1959, Western Aerospace, volume 39, page 46

present singular third person vans · participle present vanning · participle past vanned · past vanned

1. transitiveTo transport in a van or similar vehicle (especially of horses).

   [They] had their own horses, but they hadn't bothered to van them over to Pine Hollow for this outing.

   1999, Bonnie Bryant, Changing Leads, page 53

   1 more example

   I have to have a license to own them, a license to train them, my jockey has to have a license to ride them, the van company must have a license to van them, and the black shoe man must have a license to shoe them.

   1966, United States Congress, Senate, Committee on Commerce, (Please provide the book title or journal name)

2. InternetOf law enforcement: to arrest (not necessarily in a van; derived from party van).

   2015 13-year-old credited with hacking CIA director’s AOL account gives bizarre, possibly final interview The hacker says he thinks he is about to be v&, or “vanned,” meaning being raided by law enforcement, sometime soon.

   5 more examples

   One Anon explained the reason for this, saying: "As for the domains, they were transferred to Ryan after some of us got vanned so he can keep the network up. What he did certainly wasn't the plan." (Getting "vanned" refers to getting picked up by the police.)

   2011, The hackers hacked: main Anonymous IRC servers invaded

   He later told CW that he had been "v&" or "vanned" by the police, and he expressed surprise that the police showed him detailed transcripts of his conversations.

   2012, FBI names, arrests Anon who infiltrated its secret conference call

   But not before someone supposedly forwarded all the information onto the FBI. In a last-ditch effort to avoid getting "vanned," Naratto tried to put the memie back in the bottle

   2013, Redditor Confesses to Murder with Meme, Gets Doxed by Other Redditors, Deletes His Account and Disappears

   On Wednesday night, Motherboard spoke to the teenager accused of being Cracka. "I got fucking v&," he told Motherboard, using "v&," the slang for "vanned," or getting arrested. (At this point, the arrest had not been made public.)

   2016, Teen Allegedly Behind CIA, FBI Breaches: 'They're Trying to Ruin My Life.'

   Commander X: Yep, so now you all know how I got vanned. And you just met the snitch who did it to me.

   2017, Dark Ops: An Anonymous Story, page 8

plural vans

1. abbreviationclippingClipping of vanguard.

   Ten thousand thousand Ensignes high advanc'd, / Standards, and Gonfalons twixt Van and Reare / Streame in the Aire, and for distinction serve

   1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, book 5, lines 588–590

   4 more examples

   Then a bumper to the Queen led the van of our good wishes, another to the Church Established, a third was left to the whim of the toaster[…]

   1698, Ned Ward, The London Spy

   As for the guides, they were debarred from the pleasure of discourse, the one being placed in the van, and the other obliged to bring up the rear.

   1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC

   We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   Bhīṣma then outlined the following strategy: “… Let Karṇa, clad in armour, stand in the van. And I shall command the entire army in the rear.”

   1965, “Virāṭa Parva”, in Chakravarthi V. Narasimhan, transl., The Mahābhārata, book 4, translation of original in Sanskrit, section 33, page 84

plural vans

1. businessA shovel used in cleansing ore.

present singular third person vans · participle present vanning · participle past vanned · past vanned

1. businessTo wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel.

plural vans

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

   with strange amaze / A shepherd meeting thee, the oar surveys, / And names a van (Book XI)

   1726, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, The Odyssey

2. A wing with which the air is beaten.

   Because these wings are no longer wings to fly / But merely vans to beat the air[…]

   1930, T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

   2 more examples

   So Satan fell; and ſtrait a fiery Globe / Of Angels on full ſail of wing flew nigh, / Who on their plumy Vans receiv'd him ſoft […]

   1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, pages 108–109, lines 578–580

   He wheeled in air, and stretched his vans in vain; / His vans no longer could his flight sustain.

   1717, John Dryden, Ovid's Metamorphoses, book XII

1. A place in the United States:
   1. An unincorporated community in Arkansas County, Arkansas.
   2. An unincorporated community in Polk County, Missouri.
   3. An unincorporated community in Harney County, Oregon.
   4. A city in Van Zandt County, Texas.
   5. An unincorporated community in Lee County, Virginia.
   6. A census-designated place in Boone County, West Virginia.
2. A place in Wales:
   1. A community and suburb of Caerphilly in Caerphilly borough (OS grid ref ST1686).
   2. A hamlet in Llanidloes Without community, Powys (OS grid ref SN9587).

1. A diminutive of the female given name Vanessa.
2. A diminutive of the male given names Vance, Ivan, and Evan.

   'Beautiful idea,' said Van as he helped Ada to heat the tank, fill the old battered bath and warm a couple of towels.

   1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor

1. A large saline tectonic lake of the Armenian Highland in eastern Turkey, famous for its Chalcalburnus tarichi (syn. Alburnus tarichi) fish and the 10th century Armenian cathedral on Akhtamar Island.
2. A province and metropolitan municipality in easternmost Turkey, partly surrounding the lake, with a Kurdish majority.
3. A city, the capital of Van Province, Turkey, on the shore of the lake.

alternative Van. · alternative VAN

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of Vancouver.

plural Vans

1. A Van cat.
2. A Turkish Van cat.

plural VANs

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of value-added network.

alternative Van. · alternative Van · alternative VAN.

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of Vancouver.

   Synonyms: YVR