carriage trade
1
9.1
- noun
- /ˈkɛrɪdʒ treɪd/
- Archaic
:
clientela adinerada
- Admittedly, as providers, we do not give away services to the wealthy carriage trade of our institutions.
Examples
-
The luxury hotel caters specifically to the carriage trade, offering exclusive services for wealthy guests.
-
And this is the specialty of the house for the carriage trade.
-
Suppose we start picking up the carriage trade.
-
The restaurant owner who depends on the carriage trade?
Blog text (33) -
designed for the carriage trade and delivered with an air of insight and only the air.
-
Speaking of the carriage trade, have you seen any strangers around?
-
I'm not interested in the carriage trade.
-
Big, swanky place for the carriage trade.
-
ln the meantime, you stock up on the caviar and the champagne... because this dump is going to cater to nothing but the carriage trade.
-
In the city center, many boutiques rely on the carriage trade to sustain their high-end offerings.
How Exclusive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal parts 'carriage' (a horse-drawn vehicle) and 'trade' (business/customers) can lead a learner to infer business coming from people who use carriages — plausibly implying more affluent customers. However, the socio-historical link (that carriage users index wealth) and the phrase's somewhat dated, idiomatic usage mean the precise sense 'wealthy/upper‑class clientele' is not fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
Carriage trade comes from old shops that served people who arrived in horse-drawn carriages, so the trade was for rich customers. So today carriage trade means 'wealthy' or 'upper-class' customers, or a business that depends on them.