( also stage ) n
( in former times ) a public vehicle pulled by two to six horses along a regular route. Each place where it stopped was called a stage . Stagecoaches usually carried up to eight passengers and sometimes also mail, etc. The driver sat outside. In the US West, stagecoaches were sometimes attacked by Native Americans or robbers. For this reason, a man with a gun often sat next to the driver. This was called ‘riding shotgun’, and Americans still sometimes call the front passenger’s seat in a car the ‘shotgun seat’.
Compare Conestoga wagon .