caboose
EnglishEdit
Historic caboose on display in O'Fallon, Illinois
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From French cambuse, from Middle Dutch kabuys, kabuis (Modern Dutch kombuis (“galley; kitchen”)).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
caboose (plural cabooses)
- (obsolete, nautical) A small galley or cookhouse on the deck of a small vessel.
- (historical, nautical) A small sand-filled container used as an oven on board ship.
- 1841, Journal of the Franklin Institute, page 113:
- This stove is to be made in the form of a Franklin, but is to be furnished with an oven, and other means of cooking; its appearance is therefore more like that of the old fashioned caboose, than of a Franklin stove.
- 1881, Eliza Davies, The Story of an Earnest Life, page 226:
- A tremendous billow, fringed with foam, swept over our deck, carrying the cook's caboose, cooking utensils and stove right overboard into the sea.
- 2002, Don Philpott, Cayman Islands:
- The kitchens were kept separate because cooking was done in a caboose, a wooden box filled with sand and heated by a wood fire.
- (US, rail transport) The last car on a freight train, having cooking and sleeping facilities for the crew; a guard’s van.
- Synonym: guard's van (obsolete)
- (slang, baby-talk or euphemistic) buttocks
- (slang, sports) The person or team in last place.
- A youngest child who is born after a big gap in time.
- 1987, Harriet Wallace Rose, Something's Wrong with My Child!:
- Jimmy was seven and had just finished first grade, so that made Nancy our caboose baby — our bonus child — our swan song.
- 1987, Growing Child Research Review - Volumes 5-7:
- "Caboose" children, the late-born last offspring in the family, didn't suffer from this as much.
- 2007, Beth K. Vogt, Baby Changes Everything, page 145:
- After looking back on her own experience, she thought of some ways parents could help ease the transition for their caboose kid.
TranslationsEdit
nautical: small galley
nautical: portable oven
last car on a train
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babytalk: buttocks
sports: person or team in the last place
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youngest child
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