sled, vehicle usually drawn by either horses or dogs over ice or snow in winter. Its predecessor, the sledge, in the form of the travois and the sidecar, is believed to have been the first vehicle used by humans.
The body of a sled is supported on runners, or straight, narrow skids. Sleds are generally used where wheeled vehicles would encounter difficulty or bog down—for example, in Lapland and on the Alaskan, Canadian, and Asian tundras.