The Big Dipper.
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Results for Wain
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The noun has 2 meanings:
Meaning #1:
English writer (1925-1994)
Synonyms: John Wain, John Barrington Wain
Meaning #2:
a group of seven bright stars in the constellation Ursa Major
Synonyms: Big Dipper, Dipper, Plough, Charles's Wain, Wagon
A wain is a type of horse-drawn, load-carrying vehicle, used for agricultural purposes rather than transporting people, for example a haywain. It normally has four wheels but the term has now acquired slightly poetical connotations so is not always used with technical correctness. However, a two-wheeled 'haywain' would be a hay cart. Compare with carriage.
Builders of wains were known as wainwrights, just as the builders of carts were known as cartwrights. These trades no longer exist, but the terms survive as the surnames of descendants of those practising these crafts.
The vehicle was the subject of John Constable's 1821 painting The Hay Wain. The painting, which was part of Constable's Gold Medal exhibit to Charles X, depicts a site in Suffolk, near Flatford on the river Stour.
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![]() | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more | |
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