VAN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Van

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/væn/ Listen

noun

Van n. The front of an army; the first line or leading column; also, the front line or foremost division of a fleet, either in sailing or in battle. "Standards and gonfalons, twixt van and rear, Stream in the air."

Van n. (Mining) A shovel used in cleansing ore.

Van n.

A light wagon, either covered or open, used by tradesmen and others for the transportation of goods. (Eng.)

A large covered wagon for moving furniture, etc., also for conveying wild beasts, etc., for exhibition.

A closed railway car for baggage. See the Note under Car, 2. (Eng.)

Van n.

A fan or other contrivance, as a sieve, for winnowing grain.

A wing with which the air is beaten. (Archaic) "(/Angels) on their plumy vans received him. " "He wheeled in air, and stretched his vans in vain; His vans no longer could his flight sustain."

verb

Van v. t. (Mining) To wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel.

Van v. t. To fan, or to cleanse by fanning; to winnow. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Van'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Van" Quotes from Famous Books

... of the plot does not begin until the sentence, 'In a long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, Rip had unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill Mountains.'" The critic has missed, I think, the main structural excellence of the story. Dame Van Winkle, the children who hung around Rip, his own children, his dog, the social club at the inn with the portrait of George the Third, Van Bummel, and Nicholas Vedder, all had to be mentioned before Rip began the ascent of the mountain. Otherwise, when he returned, we should have had no means ...

— Short Stories Old and New • Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith

... man in England like Old Man Rubens, or Van Dyke, or those other fellows, I forget their names, who are head and shoulders above everybody else? Sort of Jay Gould in ...

— One Day's Courtship - The Heralds Of Fame • Robert Barr

... and sometimes start up and look at her own image in the glass opposite. She could not help seeing that she looked much nicer in her white sailor hat, her pretty white gloves, and well-fitting dark blue serge than she had looked when she went to Dawlish one week ago. And that trunk in the luggage-van kept returning to her memory again and again, and in her purse were ten shillings, and in her mother's purse were three pounds, for the difference between the third-class and the first-class fares had been paid, and Florence, ...

— A Bunch of Cherries - A Story of Cherry Court School • L. T. Meade

... pretty and touching, but meantime the Worm had turned and dispatched a letter to the Majestic at the quarantine station, telling her that he had found a less reluctant bride in the person of her intimate friend Miss Rosa Van Brunt; and so Francesca's dream of duty and sacrifice ...

— Penelope's Progress - Being Such Extracts from the Commonplace Book of Penelope Hamilton As Relate to Her Experiences in Scotland • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

... it! Ebeneezerr, but this place has got the Catskills and old Rip Van Winkle beat! ...

— Tom Slade with the Boys Over There • Percy K. Fitzhugh

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