Also 8–9 erron. tandum. [app. L. tandem at length (of time) used punningly.]
A. sb. 1. A two-wheeled vehicle drawn by two horses (or other beasts of draught) harnessed one before the other.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., Tandem, a two wheeled chaise, buggy, or noddy, drawn by two horses, one before the other, that is at length.
1789. Loiterer, No. 42. 12. I have not the smallest desire to ride in Mr. Whirligig’s Tandem.
1807. Byron, Lett. to Miss Pigot, 11 Aug. We shall … proceed in a tandem … to Inverary.
1821. A. Hodgson, Lett. fr. N. Amer. (1824), II. 110. Painted sleighs … are dashing along [Broadway, New York] in all directions … some with two horses abreast; some harnessed as tandems, and others with four in hand.
1850. N. & Q., 1st Ser. I. 382/1. We have a practical pun now naturalized in our language in the word ‘tandem.’
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., 1. They drove tandems in all directions, scattering their ample allowances … about roadside inns.
b. transf. A pair of carriage-horses harnessed one before the other, Also fig.
1795. W. Felton, Carriages (1801), II. 120. A Tandum … is … two horses in a team, or one before the other, to draw a two-wheeled chaise.
a. 1805. A. Carlyle, Autobiog. (1860) [449. In the end of summer [of 1764] I went again with Mrs. Carlyle to Harrogate,… I got an open chaise with two horses—one before the other, and the servant on the first. Ibid.] 458. Blackett’s horse was very heavy, and my tandem far outran them.
1859. Cornwallis, New World, I. 104. I … equipped a dog-cart and tandem, for a drive to the diggings.
1885. Pall Mall G., 14 Jan., 3/2. The old political tandem, in which the poor man with talent and the rich man without it pulled together, is no longer possible.
2. Short for tandem bicycle (tricycle), canoe, engine: see C.
1884. Daily News, 19 Sept., 3/3. Cycling on a ‘tandem’ in Norway… When our tandem … was placed upon the pier, we were surrounded by an eager crowd.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 560/1. For nearly every make of single tricycle there is a corresponding tandem.
1900. Engineering Mag., XIX. 778/1. Triple-expansion engines,… having 1 high, 1 intermediate and 2 low pressure cylinders arranged as twin vertical tandems.
B. adv. One behind the other, in single file; originally of a team of two horses. Also fig.
1795. W. Felton, Carriages (1801), II. Gloss., Tandum, the manner of driving two horses in a team.
1818. T. L. Peacock, Nightmare Abbey, i. His fellow-students … drove tandem and random in great perfection.
1837. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 1 Jan., 1/2. The letters are conveyed daily from Canterbury to Dover on sledges drawn by three and four horses, tandem.
1893. Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 196/1. Three logs chained tandem constituted the load, and we vaulted upon the last log for a ride to the boom.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 135/1. The patient mules, driven tandem, were dragging a heavy barge down the canal.
C. attrib. and Comb., as tandem-curricle, -drag (DRAG sb. 1 d), -driving, -horse, -sleigh, -team, -whip; tandem-wise adv.; tandem bicycle (tricycle), canoe, a bicycle (tricycle) or canoe for two persons, one seated behind the other; tandem engine, a steam engine with two cylinders one in front of the other, the two pistons working on a common piston-rod; tandem-play: see quot.
1899. Daily News, 11 Jan., 2/4. In the Soudan they used a small dynamo driven by means of a *tandem bicycle.
1815. Reviewers Reviewed, 18. Even Doctor Solomon … is ready with his *tandem-curricle to invite him to Gilead Hall.
1817. J. Palmer, Jrnl. Trav. in U.S., etc. (1818), 217. [At Montreal] I have seen a *tandem dog cart, the dogs harnessed and belled the same as horses.
1825. C. M. Westmacott, Eng. Spy, I. 86. Since she put down her *tandem drag.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xix. Riding and *tandem-driving were the fashions of the ingenuous youth.
1878. Engineer, XLVI. 23 (Paris Exhibition), 60. Horse Power Compound, *Tandem Engine.
[Cf. 1901. Feilden’s Mag., IV. 413/1. The fan engines, which were tandem-compound, were afterwards fitted with low-pressure relief-valves, in addition to those fitted in the high-pressure cylinders.]
1830. Lytton, P. Clifford, xxxi. A light cart drawn by two swift horses in a *tandem fashion awaited the fugitives.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 73. They are being built with the high-pressure above the low-pressure, tandem fashion, with a piston-rod common to both.
1801. Felton, Carriages, II. App. 6. When loaded, a leading or *Tandum horse, is mostly applied.
1895. Baily’s Mag., May, 353/2. A useful house-of-call, at which you could pop on a *tandem leader.
1895. Funk’s Stand Dict., *Tandem-play (Football), a play in which the man running with the ball is preceded or followed, or both preceded and followed, by other men of his own side … to assist him in breaking through the opposing line.
1863. ‘Ouida,’ Held in Bondage (1870), 31. Dashing on with his *tandem-team too quickly for identification.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, I. xxxiii. 230. It might have been touched from the deck with a *tandem whip.
1860. All Year Round, 496. The two horses which he has … had harnessed to it *tandem-wise.
Hence Tandem, Tandemize vbs., intr. to drive a tandem; trans. to harness or drive (a horse, etc.) tandem fashion; Tandemer, Tandemist, one who rides a tandem bicycle or tricycle.
1828. Sporting Mag., XXII. 132. We *tandem’d on to Melton for a finishing treat.
1898. Speaker, 16 July, 87. They tandemed the donkey to drag their impedimenta up the slope of 1,200 feet.
1894. Daily News, 3 May, 8/6. At 5 miles the *tandemers had cut the record by a good deal over 2 min.
1885. Cyclist, 5 Aug., 1026/2. The silken fetters of matrimony convert a happy bicyclist into … an equally happy *tandemist.
1819. A. Price, Quadrille, i. 4. After escorting her, tilburizing her, *tandemizing her, and flirting with her, now to be jilted for a coxcomb.
1824. Blackw. Mag., XV. 115. Reginald … drinks—games—hunts—tandemizes.
1840. New Monthly Mag., LIX. 492. Tandemizing, cricketizing, boatizing,… is not to be carried on without a considerable expenditure.
