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caboose

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Historic caboose on display in O'Fallon, Illinois

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Dutch kabuis, kombuis (“galley, kitchen”) or German Low German Kabüüs (“galley”), from Middle Dutch cabûse and Middle Low German kabûs, kabûse respectively.

Cognate with German Kabüse, Kombüse, Danish kabys, Swedish kabyss, French combuse (< Middle Dutch kabuys). Probably related to English boose (“a stall or shed”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /kəˈbuːs/
  • Audio (Australia):(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːs

Noun

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caboose (plural cabooses or (nonstandard, humorous) cabeese or (nonstandard, humorous) caboosen)

  1. (obsolete, nautical) A small galley or cookhouse on the deck of a small vessel.
  2. (historical, nautical) A small sand-filled container used as an oven on board ship.
    • 1821, Owen Chase, Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex …:
      On the second day out, while sailing moderately on our course in the Gulf Stream, a sudden squall of wind struck the ship from the SW. and knocked her completely on her beam-ends, stove one of our boats, entirely destroyed two others, and threw down the cambouse.
    • 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.
  3. (US, rail transport) The last car on a freight train, consisting of cooking and sleeping facilities for the crew; a guard’s van.
    Synonym: (obsolete) guard's van
  4. (slang, childish, euphemistic) The buttocks.
  5. (slang, sports) The person or team in last place.
  6. (informal, often in combination) A youngest child who is born after a long 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.

Translations

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