caravans

Noun

caravan (plural caravans)

1. A convoy or procession of travellers, their cargo and vehicles, and any pack animals, especially camels crossing a desert.
   • To the left the caravan animals, securely picketed, at regular distances of some fifteen yards apart, occupied an area of several acres.1846, Rufus B. Sage, Rocky Mountain Life

   Synonyms:

   camel train, caravanserai, convoy, pack train, wagon train

2. (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, UK) A furnished vehicle towed behind a car, etc., and used as a dwelling when stationary.
   • An Italian woman, twenty years of age, […] was travelling in a caravan with the baggage of the Duke of Wellington's army, in the middle of the night, in a violent storm, while she was fast asleep, a small monkey with a long chain upon the roof of the caravan took refuge in it […]1825, Royal Society, Philosophical transactions of the Royal society of London : giving some accompt of the present undertakings, studies, and labours of the ingenious in many considerable parts of...

   Synonyms:

   camper, recreational vehicle, RV, trailer, travel trailer

3. (collective) A group of camels, especially when used as beasts of burden carrying people and merchandise.
   • Twice, however, we encountered a caravan of camels-about seventy strong in one instance, and about thirty in the other.1914, William Ainger Wigram, Sir Edgar Thomas Ainger Wigram, The Cradle of Mankind: Life in Eastern Kurdistan, A. and C. Black, page 64

See all 5 meanings of caravan