Definition of "gondola" []

• Nautical A lightweight narrow barge with ends that curve up into a point and often a small cabin in the middle, propelled with a single oar from the stern and used on the canals of Venice. (noun)
• Nautical A flatbottom riverboat. (noun)
• A gondola car. (noun)
• A basket, enclosure, or instrument sling suspended from and carried aloft by a balloon. (noun)
• An enclosed structure suspended from a cable, used for conveying passengers, as to and from a ski slope. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "When a man wants to start a gondola, he will begin by buying one already half past service -- a _gondola da traghetto_ or _di mezza età_."
• "A gondola is more beautiful, but the steam-launch takes one places, and an electric car is more comfortable than the hump of a camel."
• "The solution was to suspend a gondola from a 160 feet high gantry by what are known as trolley wires, in order that this strange craft could ply (as it still does) across the River Tees with foot passengers and up to nine cars."