char-à-banc

A form of charabanc — A horse-drawn, and then later, motorized omnibus with open sides, and often, no roof.

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Meanings

nounchar-à-banc (plural char-à-bancs or chars-à-bancs)

plural char-à-bancs · plural chars-à-bancs

  1. obsoleteObsolete form of charabanc.

    At a quarter past eleven a succession of chars-à-bancs brought up specially-invited guests from the station and I went down into the compound to assist at the reception.

    1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed
    1 more example

    To-day, when fish no longer inhabited its tanks, it was a by-word; it was a failure in every other direction; it was despised by its owners. So abject was its condition that recently efforts had actually been made by a hardened and determined ichthyophobe named Clayton to convert it into a garage for char-à-bancs.

    1922 September 20, E. V. L., “The Fishes’ Revenge”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume 163, page 286
Cite this entry
APA

char-à-banc. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/char-%C3%A0-banc

MLA

“char-à-banc.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/char-%C3%A0-banc. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “char-à-banc,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/char-%C3%A0-banc.

Source: char-à-banc on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.