Note: In the United States, light wagons are used for the
conveyance of persons and light commodities.
2. A freight car on a railway. [Eng.]
3. A chariot [Obs.] --Spenser.
4. (Astron.) The Dipper, or Charles's Wain.
Note: This word and its compounds are often written with two
g's (waggon, waggonage, etc.), chiefly in England. The
forms wagon, wagonage, etc., are, however,
etymologically preferable, and in the United States are
almost universally used.
{Wagon boiler}. See the Note under {Boiler}, 3.
{Wagon ceiling} (Arch.), a semicircular, or wagon-headed,
arch or ceiling; -- sometimes used also of a ceiling whose
section is polygonal instead of semicircular.
{Wagon master}, an officer or person in charge of one or more
wagons, especially of those used for transporting freight,
as the supplies of an army, and the like.
{Wagon shoe}, a skid, or shoe, for retarding the motion of a
wagon wheel; a drag.
{Wagon vault}. (Arch.) See under 1st {Vault}.
The long-drawn aisle and fretted vault. --Gray.
2. An arched apartment; especially, a subterranean room, use
for storing articles, for a prison, for interment, or the
like; a cell; a cellar. ``Charnel vaults.'' --Milton.
The silent vaults of death. --Sandys.
To banish rats that haunt our vault. --Swift.
3. The canopy of heaven; the sky.
That heaven's vault should crack. --Shak.
4. [F. volte, It. volta, originally, a turn, and the same
word as volta an arch. See the Etymology above.] A leap or
bound. Specifically:
(a) (Man.) The bound or leap of a horse; a curvet.
(b) A leap by aid of the hands, or of a pole, springboard,
or the like.
Note: The l in this word was formerly often suppressed in
pronunciation.
{Barrel}, {Cradle}, {Cylindrical}, or {Wagon}, {vault}
(Arch.), a kind of vault having two parallel abutments,
and the same section or profile at all points. It may be
rampant, as over a staircase (see {Rampant vault}, under
{Rampant}), or curved in plan, as around the apse of a
church.
{Coved vault}. (Arch.) See under 1st {Cove}, v. t.
{Groined vault} (Arch.), a vault having groins, that is, one
in which different cylindrical surfaces intersect one
another, as distinguished from a barrel, or wagon, vault.
{Rampant vault}. (Arch.) See under {Rampant}.
{Ribbed vault} (Arch.), a vault differing from others in
having solid ribs which bear the weight of the vaulted
surface. True Gothic vaults are of this character.
{Vault light}, a partly glazed plate inserted in a pavement
or ceiling to admit light to a vault below.