pillion

plural pillions

1. A pad behind the saddle of a horse for a second rider.

   1 more example

   It was all the greater triumph to Miss Nancy Lammeter's beauty that she looked thoroughly bewitching in that costume, as, seated on the pillion behind her tall, erect father, she held one arm round him, and looked down, with open-eyed anxiety, at the treacherous snow-covered pools and puddles, which sent up formidable splashings of mud under the stamp of Dobbin's foot.

   1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XI, in Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC

2. hobbiesA similar second saddle on a bicycle or motorcycle for a passenger.

   She was to creep out quietly […] and meet me at our usual trysting place—a spot a few hundred yards from our respective abodes. I would be there with my iron steed, and on the pillion thereof would whirl her into fairyland.

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

3. The person riding in the pillion.

   Synonyms: pillionist

4. The cushion of a saddle.

1. not comparableRiding behind the driving rider, as when positioned on the rump of a mount.

present singular third person pillions · participle present pillioning · participle past pillioned · past pillioned

1. transitiveTo place (a person) on a pillion.

   But we thought she could start out by pillioning me, and then she can decide whether she still wants to learn to ride her own little bike.

   2018, Sue McDonagh, Summer at the Art Cafe, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   When he had gazed at the stars sufficiently as they shone over his mistress's window, and put her candle to bed, repaired to his own dormitory, and there, no doubt, thought of his Maria and his horse with youthful satisfaction, and how sweet it would be to have one pillioned on the other, and to make the tour of all the island on such an animal with such a pair of white arms round his waist.

   1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859, →OCLC

   A ferlie (fairy) he spied with his ee, And there he saw a lady bright, Come riding down by the Elldon tree"— a lady who had "fifty siller bells and nine" on each lock of her horse's mane, and who pillioned Thomas the Rhymer, and took him, "red blude to the knee," thorugh the mirk, mirk night, to the place where "They saw neither sun nor moon."

   1933, The Sussex County Magazine - Volume 7, page 51

2. intransitiveTo ride on a pillion.

   I met a Latvian lass who enjoyed pillioning, showed me her country and best spots — yes, the best way to enjoy a country!

   2011, Al Culler, Motorcycle Travels and Travails

   1 more example

   I caught the train just after you went (it was a good idea, that pillion ride - though pretty awful pillioning with a suitcase and masterpiece in one's arms!) and dumped the m-p in London on Emery Walker, to be photographed half size and collotyped, 100 copies.

   1935 January 31, Thomas Edward Lawrence, Letter to Pat Knowles

   Synonyms: ride bitch, ride pillion

3. To put a pillion on a horse.

   Noisy congratulations followed ; then the swiftest horse was chosen, and saddled, bridled, and pillioned.

   1872, George Augustus Sala, Edmund Yates, Temple Bar - Volume 34, page 407

   2 more examples

   Accordingly, he saddled and pillioned his horse, thinking he might have the honor of bringing the bride himself.

   1764, Dennis Donovan, Jacob Andrews Woodward, The History of the Town of Lyndeborough, New Hampshire,1735-1905

   But ordher one iv yer men to pillion the horse in a jiffy, for onct we get hoult iv the money bags, we must be off, or Tom Riddle won't lave a bone in my body but he'll break into smithereens.

   1871, Paul Peppergrass, The Spaewife ; Or, The Queens̓ Secret: A Story of the Reign of Elizabeth