1. an enclosed boxlike motor vehicle having rear or side doors and side panels especially for transporting people.
2. A covered or enclosed truck or wagon often used for transporting goods or livestock.
3. chiefly british A closed railroad car used for carrying baggage or freight.
4. to transport by van: vanned the horses to the racetrack.
5. to drive or travel in a van: vanned around the country.
6. the vanguard; the forefront.
7. A wing.
8. archaic A winnowing device, such as a fan.

1. A (covered) vehicle used for carrying goods or people, usually roughly cuboid in shape, longer and higher than a car but smaller than a truck
2. a railway carriage
3. shortened form of vanguard
4. shortened form of caravan
5. to transport in a van or similar vehicle (especially of horses).

1. the front of an army; the first line or leading column; also, the front line or foremost division of a fleet, either in sailing or in battle.
2. A shovel used in cleansing ore.
3. A light wagon, either covered or open, used by tradesmen and others for the transportation of goods.
4. A large covered wagon for moving furniture, etc., also for conveying wild beasts, etc., for exhibition.
5. A closed railway car for baggage. see the note under car, 2.
6. A fan or other contrivance, as a sieve, for winnowing grain.
7. A wing with which the air is beaten.
8. to wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel.
9. to fan, or to cleanse by fanning; to winnow.

1. to winnow; fan.
2. in mining, to separate, as ore from veinstone, by washing it on the point of a shovel. see van, n., 2, and vanner.
3. to carry or transport in a van.
4. A shortened form of avant-.
5. the small store in a logging-camp in which clothing, tobacco, and medicine are kept, to supply the crew.
6. A fan or other contrivance for winnowing grain.
7. [⟨ van, verb] in mining, a test of the value of an ore, made by washing (vanning) a small quantity, after powdering it, on the point of a shovel. Vanning is to a cornish miner what washing in the horn spoon is to the mexican. see van, verb, 2.
8. A vane, as of a feather; hence, a wing.
9. the foremost division of an army on the march, or of a fleet when sailing; hence, by extension, the front of an army when in line of battle: opposed to rear.
10. the leaders of any movement in which many are engaged; the foremost individuals of any moving body; the front of any advancing body; the front generally: literally or figuratively.
11. any large covered carriage; specifically, a large covered wagon used in moving furniture and household effects.
12. A kind of vehicle, sometimes covered and sometimes open, used by tradesmen and others for carrying light goods, etc.
13. A close carriage attached to a railway-train, for carrying passengers' luggage, for the accommodation of the guard, etc.

1. (great britain) a closed railroad car that carries baggage or freight
2. a truck with an enclosed cargo space
3. the leading units moving at the head of an army
4. a camper equipped with living quarters
5. any creative group active in the innovation and application of new concepts and techniques in a given field (especially in the arts)