: a simple vehicle used by Plains peoples consisting of two trailing poles serving as shafts and bearing a platform or net for the load
Illustration of travois
Examples of travois in a Sentence
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But researchers have not discovered any evidence of animals near the travois marks in New Mexico.—
Sarah Kuta,
Smithsonian Magazine,
13 Mar. 2025 The discovery of travois marks, however, has introduced the possibility that human migration began thousands of years earlier.—
Tessa Solomon For Artnews,
Robb Report,
5 Mar. 2025 The footprints are of varying size along the tracks, researchers said, meaning an adult and children were moving together while the adult pulled the travois.—
Irene Wright,
Sacramento Bee,
27 Feb. 2025 The researchers concluded that the tracks were likely carved into the sediment by prehistoric humans who were dragging a travois on the ground to transport items.—
Jack Knudson,
Discover Magazine,
25 Feb. 2025
Word History
Etymology
American French travail, from Canadian French, shaft of a cart, from Middle French traveil catafalque, prop, from Late Latin trepalium instrument of torture — more at travail