Meanings
plural travoises · alternative travail · alternative travoise · alternative travoy
- UShistoricalA frame, often consisting of two poles tied together at one end to form a V-shaped structure with the vertex attached to a dog, horse, etc., or held by a person and the other ends touching the ground, which was used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land.
Even the dogs worked then, pulling small burdens on travois of sticks.
1950, Dorothy M. Johnson, A Man Called Horse; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 1742 more examples
On the plains they will have horses dragging travoises, dogs with travoises, women and children loaded with impedimenta, […]
1892, Julian Ralph, “‘Talking Musquash’: Concluding the Sketch of the History and Work of the Hudson Bay Company”, in On Canada’s Frontier […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 236–237Riding out for wood he watched his shadow and the shadow of the horse and travois cross those palings tree by tree. Boyd rode in the travois holding the axe as if he'd keep guard over the wood they'd gathered […]
1994, Cormac McCarthy, chapter I, in The Crossing (The Border Trilogy; 2), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 5
present singular third person travoises · participle present travoising · participle past travoised · past travoised
- broadlytransitiveTo transport (someone or something) by means of a travois.
1 more example
At White Sands, we found drag-marks made by the ends of wooden poles while excavating for fossil footprints. Sometimes these appear as just one trace, while at other times they occur as two parallel, equidistant traces. A pole or poles used in this fashion is called a travois. . . To help interpret these features, we . . . used different combinations of poles to recreate simple, hand-pulled travois . . . In our experiments the pole-ends dragged along the mud truncate footprints in the same way as the fossil example in New Mexico. . . . the footprints and drag-marks tell a story of the movement of resources . . . Adults pulled the simple. . . travois, while a group of children tagged along. . . Travois are known from historical documents and accounts of Indigenous peoples and their traditions. They were . . .associated with dogs or horses, but were pulled by humans in our tests. . . they represent early examples of the handcart or wheelbarrow, but without the wheel.
2025, Matthew Robert Bennett, Sally Christine Reynolds, Fossil footprints reveal what may be the oldest known handcarts
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Latintripālis“having, or propped up by, three pales or stakes”
- Late Latintripālium“torture device consisting of three stakes”
- Old Frenchtravail“frame for restraining horses and cattle for medical treatment or shoeing”
- Middle Frenchtravail
- Frenchtravail
- Canadian Frenchtravail“travois”
- Michiftravawy
- Englishtravois
PIE word *tréyes The noun is derived from Michif travawy (IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /tɹæˈvɔɪ/), from Canadian French travail (“travois”), from French travail, from Middle French travail, from Old French travail (“frame for restraining horses and cattle for medical treatment or shoeing”), from Late Latin tripālium (“torture device consisting of three stakes”), from Latin tripālis (“having, or propped up by, three pales or stakes”) (from tri- (prefix meaning ‘three’) + pālus (“pale, stake”)) + -ium (suffix forming nouns). Doublet of travel and travail. The spelling travois and pronunciations /ˈtɹævwɑ(ː)/, /tɹævˈwɑ/ are probably influenced by French -ois (suffix forming adjectives relating to particular countries, regions, or cities, their associated inhabitant names, and the local languages or dialects). The verb is derived from the noun.
More words from Michif, Canadian French, French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian травуа́
- травуа́ (travuá)frame used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Catalan travois
- travoisframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Chinese Mandarin 印第安雪橇
- 印第安雪橇 (yìndì'ānxuěqiāo)frame used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Danish travois
- travoisframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Dutch travois
- travoisframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Estonian aislohisti
- aislohistiframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Finnish purilaat, purilaat
- purilaatframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
- purilaatsimilar piece of equipment used to transport something by dragging; especially a stretcher dragged by a horse, mule, etc., used to transport an ill or injured person
- tukkikelkkasled dragged by a horse or ox to transport logs
- kantaa purilailla(transitive) to transport (someone or something) by means of a travois; (intransitive) to use a travois to transport loads
- kuljettaa purilailla(transitive) to transport (someone or something) by means of a travois; (intransitive) to use a travois to transport loads
French travois
- travoisframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
German Stangenschleife, Zuggeschir
- Stangenschleifeframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
- Zuggeschirframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Italian treggia
- treggiaframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Latvian trevojs
- trevojsframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Russian травуа́, волочня́
- травуа́ (travuá)frame used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
- волочня́ (voločnjá)frame used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
- волочу́га (voločúga)frame used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
- воло́ка (volóka)frame used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
- волоку́ша (volokúša)frame used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Spanish travois
- travoisframe used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Ukrainian волоку́ша
- волоку́ша (volokúša)frame used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with travois
All rhymes →Cite this entry
travois. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/travois
“travois.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/travois. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “travois,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/travois.
Source: travois on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.