wain - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English wayn, from Old English wæġn, from Proto-West Germanic *wagn, from Proto-Germanic *wagnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *woǵʰnos, from *weǵʰ- (“to bring, transport”). Doublet of wagon, borrowed from Middle Dutch.

An oil painting of a hay wain by John Constable

wain (plural wains)

(archaic or literary) A wagon; a four-wheeled cart for hauling loads, usually pulled by horses or oxen.
"The Hay Wain" is a famous painting by John Constable.
- 1955 October 20, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “Minas Tirith”, in The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings […], New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published December 1978, →ISBN, book V, page 40:
  Many roads and tracks crossed the green fields, and there was much coming and going: wains moving in lines towards the Great Gate, and others passing out.
(archaic, poetry and mythology) A chariot or similar stately carriage.
- 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 175:
  And the hill-king spake to his footpages twain.
  Time with me goes slow. —
  "Put ye the gray pacers now unto the wain,"
  But that grief is heavy I know.

wain (third-person singular simple present wains, present participle waining, simple past and past participle wained)

wain (third-person singular simple present wains, present participle waining, simple past and past participle wained)

Misspelling of wane.
- 2008, "From Mowtown to ‘Growtown’? Detroit’s urban farming catches the eye of the BBC", modelD:
  As the auto industry is waining away, the city is looking for something new. [1]

From wee one.