Definition of "pantechnicon" in English

noun

1. (chiefly British) A building or place housing shops or stalls where all sorts of (especially exotic) manufactured articles are collected for sale.

2. (chiefly British) Originally pantechnicon van: a van, especially a large moving or removal van.

   • The pantechnicon was running away. It had perceived the wrath to come and was fleeing. Its guardians had evidently left it imperfectly scotched or braked, and it had got loose. […] [T]he onrush of the pantechnicon constituted a clear crisis. Lower down the gradient of Brougham Street was more dangerous, and it was within the possibilities that people inhabiting the depths of the street might find themselves pitched out of bed by the sharp corner of a pantechnicon that was determined to be a pantechnicon.
   • In fact, as they later found, the auxiliary vehicle was a very large removers' van – the kind known as a pantechnicon.