char-à-banc

English

Noun

char-à-banc (plural char-à-bancs or chars-à-bancs)

1. Obsolete form of charabanc.
   • 1922 September 20, E. V. L., “The Fishes’ Revenge”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume 163, page 286:

     To-day, when fish no longer inhabited its tanks, it was a by-word; it was a failure in every other direction; it was despised by its owners. So abject was its condition that recently efforts had actually been made by a hardened and determined ichthyophobe named Clayton to convert it into a garage for char-à-bancs.

   • 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed‎^[1]:

     At a quarter past eleven a succession of chars-à-bancs brought up specially-invited guests from the station and I went down into the compound to assist at the reception.