Meaning of sedan chair | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An open or enclosed chair raised on poles and carried by people or animals, used as a mode of transport.
   historical
2. An equivalent mode of transport created by two people grasping each other's forearms, making a seat for the rider.

Equivalents

Examples

“In Rio de Janeiro the gentry keep⟳ their chaises, which are drawn by mules; the ladies however use⟳ a sedan chair, boarded before and behind, with curtains on each side, which is carried by two negroes on a pole connected with the top of the chair, by two rods, coming from under its bottom, one on each side, and resting to the top.”

“Mr. G.'s published letters have⟳ widely diffused his favorite position, that "China is open⟳." He still maintains this position, though others have⟳ risen to controvert it. To me it seems that, whether or not it is open⟳ to the settlement of missionaries is a matter⟳ to be decided only by experiment⟳; to make⟳ which, there are not more than himself and three other missionaries sufficiently versed in the language... The worst that would probably happen⟳ to a proper man, making the trial, would be, to be placed in a sedan chair, and transmitted to Macao... It is a great mercy that China should be shut⟳, at present⟳, to Christian teachers. Were it otherwise, Protestants are without persons to send⟳; while Popish priests abound in the East, and would instantly enter⟳ in great numbers, making the field worse for us, if possible, than now.”

“The National Code states: "Except the spouses and daughters of royal families, and the mothers, wives, daughters, and daughters-in-law of chief officials [tangsanggwan], as well as the brides of officials [ŭmgwan] who are appointed without taking state civil service examinations, no one is allowed to ride⟳ in a sedan chair with a canopy [okgyoja], and the violators of this statute shall be punished by eighty strokes of beating with a heavy stick⟳..." However, the womenfolk of the yamen clerks in the Honam region alone all ride⟳ in sedan chairs with canopies, letting down colorful bead screens and being escorted by their servants, who shout⟳ to make⟳ a way ahead... As the decline⟳ of old families and famous clans becomes serious day by day, the sedan chairs that they use⟳ are so worn out that they are bound by ropes of straw; the destroyed canopy is replaced by a mat, the drapery by a dress, and the bead screen by a cut-off fish⟳ trap⟳. They place⟳ the sedan chair on the back of a cow... These are the things we hear⟳ about nowadays.”

“Another way of carrying a patient is upon what is known among school-boys as a ‘sedan-chair’, each bearer grasping his own⟳ fore-arm and that of his fellow about its middle... and the patient grasping the bearers' necks.”

CEFR level