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chariot Definition

chari·ot (c̸har′ē ət)

noun

  1. a horse-drawn, two-wheeled cart used in ancient times for war, racing, parades, etc.
  2. a light, four-wheeled carriage, used esp. in the 18th cent. for pleasure or on some state occasions

Etymology: ME < OFr charriote < char, car < LL carrum: see car

transitive verb, intransitive verb

to drive or ride in a chariot

chariot Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • pull: The teachers played the horses, pulling each chariot in hotly contested races.
  • draw: Instead, they show a picture of a fat man in a green suit pulled about in a chariot drawn by reindeer.
  • wing: He went up to heaven in a winged chariot pulled by griffins.
  • ride: He saw the nobles riding chariots onto the battlefields.
  • drive: He never drove a chariot in the four stables.

Adjective modifier

  • four-horse: Pliny describes a model of a four-horse chariot made out a piece of ivory smaller than a fly's wing.
  • triumphal: Triumphal chariot The triumph was a procession through the streets of Rome that marked a military victory.
  • fiery: These meteors were supposed to form the fiery chariots in which the souls of the Druids were conveyed to heaven.
  • golden: The gods of the ancient world have returned in their golden chariots to save the day!
  • sweet: Come, sweet chariots, and carry me home to bed.

Modifies a noun

  • burial: A chariot burial was excavated near the railroad station, right.
  • racing: It's a bit like chariot racing without the horses!
  • wheel: The word comes from the Sanskrit root for a " broken chariot wheel " .
  • race: I can only win chariot races at the lower levels.
  • fitting: The nature of the burial and associated artifacts, including chariot fittings, suggest this was a very high status person.
  • horse: Chariot horses trained from 3, raced from 5. Starting positions determined by lot, drawn in public.

Noun used with modifier

  • war: There are columns of soldiers at the front, followed by war chariots at the back.

Preposition: of

  • sun: He asked Phoebus for proof of his paternity, and, being granted a wish, requested to drive the chariot of the sun.
  • fire: Enoch is taken up in a chariot of fire.

Preposition: with

  • horse: The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north, i.e. to Babylon.
chariot Quotes

Bring me my bow of burning gold! Bring me myarrows of desire! Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold! Bring me my chariot of fire!

—Blake,William

He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Behold there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of 92 fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Don't let us be familiar or fond, nor kiss before folks, like my Lady Fadler and Sir Francis: nor go to Hyde-Park together the first Sunday in a new chariot, to provoke eyes and whispers, and then never be seen there together again; as if we were proud of one another the first week, and ashamed of one another ever after† Let usbe verystrangeandwell-bred: Let usbe asstrangeasif wehad beenmarried a great while, and aswell-bred as if we were not married at all.

—Congreve,William

A slap-up gal in a bang-up chariot.

—Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam

I dislike burdens†and at my back I often hearTime's winged chariot changing gear. See Marvell 556:62.

—Linklater, Eric Robert

My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow, An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze. Two hundred to adore each breast: But thirty thousand to the rest. An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart. For Lady you deserve this state; Nor would I love at lower rate. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near: And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.

—Marvell, Andrew

He asked for water, and she brought him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead. The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice,Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?

—Bible (Old Testament)