boneshaker

noun — 2 senses

boneshaker

noun

Etymology From bone + shaker, from the uncomfortableness of the ride.

1

A velocipede (the bicycle of the late 1860s).

The man named Honeysett had ridden off on an old boneshaker of his to fetch the engines.1905, E. Nesbit, “The arsenicators”, in Oswald Bastable and Others:

2

Something jolty.

a boneshaker of a journey
The car was a real boneshaker.

1 more example

As this was my third journey on these boneshakers I am beginning to think there must be some very serious fault in their design.1959 December, “Letters to the Editor: The riding of S.R. multiple-units”, in Trains Illustrated, page 628:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.