What does "swingtree" mean?

The bar of a carriage to which the traces are fastened.

Swingtree

Common synonyms include: draft-bar, draught bar, singletree, swingletree, whiffletree, whiffletree.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The bar of a carriage to which the traces are fastened. dated
"In this mode of yoking, the horses work in unicorn-team, the middle horse pulling by the soam- chain, instead of the swingtree"

"In this mode of yoking, the horses work in unicorn-team, the middle horse pulling by the soam- chain, instead of the swingtree"

From swing + tree.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.