charabanc

• char-à-banc (obsolete)

Borrowed from French char-à-bancs (literally “carriage with benches”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈʃæ.ɹə.bæŋ(k)/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

charabanc (plural charabancs)

1. (British, historical) A horse-drawn, and then later, motorized omnibus with open sides, and often, no roof.

   Synonym: (short form) chara

   • 1931, Francis Beeding, “2/2”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps‎:

     A little further on, to the right, was a large garage, where the charabancs stood, half in and half out of the yard.

   • 1968, “Happiness Stan”, in Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, performed by Small Faces:

     And full of colored dreams / Deep inside a rainbow / Lived Happiness Stan / In a small Victorian charabanc

   • 2006 Aug 7 & 14, John Updike, “Late Works”, in The New Yorker, page 70:

     The cumbersome though finely painted charabanc of the late James style is pulled swaying along by a frisky pony of a plot farcical and romantic.

2. (British, dated) A bus, especially one hired by groups for pleasure outings, what was later called a coach.
   • 1977, “Peaches”, performed by the Stranglers:

     Oh shit, there goes the charabanc!
     Looks like I'm gonna be stuck here the whole summer

   • 2023 February 22, “Stop & Examine”, in RAIL, number 977, page 71:

     Mum had worked there as a teenager and once recalled her duty of having to meet the charabancs that brought the well-heeled to the baths from Droitwich station before the war.

3. (British, informal) A vehicle that is slow, overcrowded, or otherwise undesirable.
   • 1951, Ethel Mannin, South to Samarkand, page 109:

     We return to the charabanc of a car to find a swarm of children dancing round it, clambering up the back, jumping on the step; the driver sleeps peacefully at the wheel, oblivious of their shrieks.

   • 2011, Fi Glover, Travels With My Radio: I Am An Oil Tanker:

     Just as I'm thinking my plan has failed an old charabanc of a vehicle slows down and starts hooting.

   • 2011, Harry Bucknall, In The Dolphin's Wake:

     It was lucky therefore that I kept an eye on the quayside blackboard by the stern of the "Patmos Star", a charabanc of a daytrip boat that was to transport me and my bags to the tiny island of Lipsí, a short hop from Patmos.

   • 2014, Laura Tong, Mark Tong, The Dog's Rollocks:

     […] but Mark has never even sat on a motorbike, let alone ridden one before and certainly not with a rowboat attached and a spasmatic dog riding pillion. It was nice to see that there was stillsome good old-fashioned British embarrassment left, as straggling past Philippe with a muttered "Au revoir, Breton.", we pushed the whole charabanc a mile up the road until there was no sign of habitation; in France even the lamp-posts have eyes.

   • 2022, Jacques Peretti, Little Bird of Auschwitz:

     The lantern got closer until eventually the sound, smell and heat of dogs was upon them, and a train of huskies stopped in a great cloud of steam. The whole charabanc emitted a strong smell of hot stew, which my mum remembers as the most heavenly thing she had ever smelt.

4. An elaborate production or endeavor involving many people or things.
   • 2013, David Ovason, The Zelator:

     For all their lean and hungry look, and for all they wear the simplest of dhotis around their loins, they usually have clever accomplices in the crowd, and a whole charabanc full of invisible wires and concealed cabinets.

   • 2013, R.J. Ellory, The R. J. Ellory Collection:

     He comes along all dressed up in the real deal costume, all the sequins and rhinestone, the heavyweight boxing belt, the cape, the whole charabanc, you know?

   • 2014, Dennis Skinner, Kevin Maguire, Sailing Close to the Wind: Reminiscences:

     Schuman's European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, which set the whole charabanc rolling, operated in the interests of producers.

   • 2018, Alan Longmuir, Martin Knight, I Ran With The Gang: My Life In and Out of the Bay City Rollers:

     Nevertheless, I felt responsible. I'd started the whole charabanc. It was my band.

charabanc (third-person singular simple present charabancs, present participle charabancing, simple past and past participle charabanced)

1. (rare, transitive, intransitive) To travel or convey by charabanc.

• charabanc on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Michael Quinion (1996–2025) “Charabanc”, in World Wide Words.

Borrowed from French char-à-bancs (“a carriage with benches”).

• IPA^(key): /sjarəbanɡ/,

charabanc c (singular definite charabancen or charabanc'en, plural indefinite charabancer or charabanc'er)

1. charabanc