sleigh

Everyday

1. A large sledge pulled by horses, reindeer or dogs, for carrying people or goods over snow. tree →
2. Father Christmas's or Santa Claus's sleigh, pulled by reindeer in Christmas stories. tree →
3. (verb) To ride in a sleigh. tree →
4. (slang) «Sleigh» is a joking Christmas spelling of slang «slay», meaning to do something brilliantly. tree →

In the lessons

In Christmas stories, songs («Jingle Bells», «Sleigh Ride») and cards Santa rides a sleigh with reindeer; in geography, sleighs are used in snowy places like Lapland, Canada and Alaska. In history, sleighs carried people across snow before cars.

Examples

• Santa's sleigh is pulled by reindeer. tree →
• We rode in a horse-drawn sleigh in Lapland. tree →
• "Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh…" tree →
• The sleigh bells jingled in the cold air. tree →
• They loaded wood onto the sleigh. tree →
• (slang, Christmas joke) "Your jumper looks great — you sleigh!" tree →
• Then they went to the Lapland woman, who gave them new clothes and mended their sleigh. tree →

Note

Countable. Sounds exactly like «slay» (to kill; in slang, to do brilliantly) — homophones. «eigh» says «ay» as in «eight». A smaller one for children is a «sledge» (UK) or «sled» (USA).