Meanings
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1
noun
historical: a horse-drawn passenger coach kept for public hire, especially a four-wheeled carriage drawn by two horses
They hired a hackney coach to carry them across London after dark.
Thesaurus
Etymology
Formed from hackney, 'a horse or carriage kept for hire,' and coach. Hackney comes from Middle English hakeney or hakenay, probably from the London place-name Hackney, near meadows where horses may once have been pastured. Hackney coach is recorded from the early seventeenth century.