Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A large wicker basket, especially.
  • noun One of a pair of baskets carried on the shoulders of a person or on either side of a pack animal.
  • noun A basket carried on a person's back.
  • noun A basket or pack, usually one of a pair, that fastens to the rack of a bicycle and hangs over the side of one of the wheels.
  • noun A framework of wire, bone, or other material formerly used to expand a woman's skirt at the hips.
  • noun A skirt or an overskirt puffed out at the hips.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bread-basket; a basket for provisions; hence, any wicker basket.
  • noun One of a pair of baskets slung across the back of a beast of burden to contain a load.
  • noun A basket for carrying objects on the back of a man or woman, used in mountainous countries and where the use of beasts of burden is not common.
  • noun 4. An adjunct of female dress, intended to distend the drapery of the skirt at the hips.
  • noun A part of woman's head-dress; a stiff frame, as of wicker or wire, to maintain the head-dress in place.—6. In arch., same as corbel.
  • noun A shield of twisted osiers used in the middle ages by archers, who fixed it in the ground in anupright position and stood behind it.
  • noun 8. In hydraulic engineering, a basket or wickerwork gabion filled with gravel or sand, used in the construction of dikes, or to protect embankments, etc., from the erosion of water.
  • noun In the inns of court, formerly, a servant who laid the cloths, set the salt-cellars, cut bread, waited on the gentlemen in term-time, blew the horn as a summons to dinner, and rang the bell; now, one of the domestics who wait in the hall of the inns at the time of dinner. Also pannier-man.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A bread basket; also, a wicker basket (used commonly in pairs) for carrying fruit or other things on a horse or an ass.
  • noun (Mil. Antiq.) A shield of basket work formerly used by archers as a shelter from the enemy's missiles.
  • noun A table waiter at the Inns of Court, London.
  • noun A framework of steel or whalebone, worn by women to expand their dresses; a kind of bustle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A large basket or bag fastened, usually in pairs, to the back of a bicycle or pack animal, or carried in pairs over the shoulders.
  • noun A decorative basket for the display of flowers or fruits.
  • noun historical, fashion One of a pair of hoops used to expand the volume of a woman's skirt to either side.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun set of small hoops used to add fullness over the hips
  • noun a large basket (usually one of a pair) carried by a beast of burden or on by a person
  • noun either of a pair of bags or boxes hung over the rear wheel of a vehicle (as a bicycle)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English panier, from Old French, from Latin pānārium, breadbasket, from pānis, bread; see pā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French panier, from Latin pānārium ("a bread basket"), from pānis ("bread").

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Examples

  • Would 100l of fuel in pannier mounted jerrycans get a bike from Seattle to NYC?

    Cheeseburger Gothic » Gentlemen’s Club. 2009

  • Just the name pannier should evoke enough irony and kitsch.

    Simplify: Less is Less BikeSnobNYC 2009

  • A pannier is a more rigid container than a bag or soggie, so that it incurs less risk of poor packing and shape to the load.

    3.1 Cattle harness 1995

  • The expedient of hiding a child in a pannier, which is afterwards filled up with eggs and chickens, and carried through a camp of hungry rebels, does not somehow appeal to the mind as quite the safest that could have been devised.

    Maria Edgeworth 1905

  • On each side of this his long-eared aide-de-camp, in a kind of pannier, were slung his water-jars, covered with fig-leaves to protect them from the sun.

    The Alhambra 2002

  • On each side of this his long-eared aide-de-camp, in a kind of pannier, were slung his water-jars, covered with fig-leaves to protect them from the sun.

    The Alhambra 2002

  • One pointed to a kind of pannier of birch-bark hanging from a teepee pole, whence issued a violent scratching.

    The Fur Bringers A Story of the Canadian Northwest Hulbert Footner 1911

  • A boy, armed with a spear, walks at the side of the women; and two children, seated in a kind of pannier placed on the back of an ass, ride on in front.

    Ancient Egypt George Rawlinson 1857

  • I pronounced "pannier" wrong for the longest time until I had to get new ones and the guy at the bike shop had no idea what "paneers" were.

    Popular Posts Across MetaFilter 2010

  • Also, a bike "pannier" (a single saddle bag) fell off of a bike early last Sunday as a rider traveled along Valley Road from Bloomfield Avenue, made a right onto Chestnut Street, and then made a left onto Midland Avenue.

    Baristanet 2009

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