horsebox

See also: horse box

English

Etymology

horse +‎ box

Noun

horsebox (plural horseboxes)

1. (UK) A motor vehicle for transporting horses.
2. A container for transporting horses in, whether by road, rail, or sea.
3. (UK, rail transport, obsolete) A van-type railway vehicle specially built for the carriage of horses.
   • 1960 January, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 58:

     On October 31 [...] Laira "Grange" No. 6871 passed through Wolverhampton with a Holyhead-Didcot horsebox special.

Usage notes

Unlike US horse trailers, horseboxes are rather small, but there are large horseboxes, coachbuilt on lorry chassis, mainly for carrying racehorses and police horses. Horse trailers may be quite large, transporting a large number of horses.

Translations

vehicle

• French: van (fr) m
• Italian: box (it) m

References

• “horsebox”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.