Also 8–9 -ki, 9 -ke. [Russ. кибитка kibitka, tent, tilt-wagon, f. Tartar kibits, with Russ. suffix -ka: cf. Arab. qubbat ‘tent covered with skins.’]
1. A circular tent made of lattice work and covered with thick felt, used by the Tartars; transf. a Tartar household or family.
1799. W. Tooke, View Russian Emp., II. 86. The nether horde … consisting of 30,000 kibitkas.
1814. trans. Klaproth’s Trav. Cauc., 162. The Russians determine the number of families by that of the felt jurtes or kibitkes.
1884. E. O’Donovan, Story of the Merv, v. 55. I was conducted to the kibitka of the village smith.
1899. Daily News, 14 Jan., 2/1. His typical studio should be a kibitka of the Steppes.
2. A Russian wagon or sledge with a rounded cover or hood; a sledge with a tilt or covering.
1806. Heber, Lett., 4 Jan., in Sat. Mag., No. 444. 215/1. We performed the journey in Kibitkas, the carriages usually employed by the Russians in their winter journies.
1823. Byron, Juan, IX. xxx. There in a kibitka he roll’d on, (A cursed sort of carriage without springs).
1855. Englishwoman in Russia, 79. They were hurried off to Siberia, in the prisoners’ kabitkas that stood ready to receive them.
