Landau
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A type of lightweight, four-wheeled carriage in which the front and back passenger seats face each other.
"Indeed, as the two gentlemen reached the door, a landau drove up, a magnificent yellow carriage, lined with brocade or satin of a faint cream colour, drawn by wonderful grey horses, with flaming ribbons, and harness blazing all over with crests: no less than three of these heraldic emblems surmounted the coats-of-arms on the panels, and these shields contained a prodigious number of quarterings, betokening the antiquity and splendour of the house of Clavering and Snell."
- 2 a four-wheel covered carriage with a roof divided into two parts (front and back) that can be let down separately wordnet
- 3 A style of automobile based around the design of landau carriages. broadly
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"A minute later we were all seated in a comfortable landau, and were rattling through the quaint old Devonshire city."
Etymology
Named after the German city of Landau, where such carriages were first made. Compare German Landauer.
From German Landau.
Related phrases
More for "landau"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.