ETYM Old Fren. cariage luggage, carriage, chariage carriage, cart, baggage, French charriage, cartage, wagoning, from Old Fren. carier, charier, French charrier, to cart. Related to Carry.
1. A machine part that carries something else.
2. A wheeled vehicle drawn by horses; SYN. equipage, rig.
3. Characteristic way of bearing one's body; SYN. bearing, posture.

The assembly that holds the platen of a typewriter or a typewriterlike printer. On a standard typewriter, the platen and carriage move past a fixed position within the typewriter housing, where the keys strike the paper; the platen rotates to advance the paper held in the carriage. On most impact printers for computers, however, the print head moves back and forth across a platen, which rotates but does not move horizontally; in such machines, the assembly that carries the print head is often called the print-head carriage assembly. See also carriage return, platen.