English

Alternative forms

• charpai
• charpaya

Noun

charpoy ‎(plural charpoys)

1. (India) A traditional bedstead in India, consisting of a wooden frame bordering a set of knotted ropes.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘To be Filed for Reference’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society 2004, p. 213:

     Here is a charpoy on which two can sit, and it is possible that there may, from time to time, be food in that platter.

   • 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days, Chapter 13,

     Flory crossed the brick-like earth of the yard between the hospital sheds. All down the wide verandas, on sheetless charpoys, rows of grey-faced men lay silent and moveless.

   • 2008, Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger, Atlantic 2009, p. 54:

     There, every morning, tens of thousands of young men sit in the tea shops, reading the newspaper, or lie on a charpoy humming a tune, or sit in their rooms talking to a photo of a film actress.

See also

• teapoy