cheese bus

English

Etymology

cheese +‎ bus

Noun

cheese bus (plural cheese buses or cheese busses)

1. (derogatory) A yellow schoolbus, especially the smaller sized versions that are used to transport students with special needs.
   • 2007, Jonathan Mooney, The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal, page 8:

     He was singing what he had been humming earlier that morning, first quietly, then as loud as he could: If you ride on the short bus clap your hands If you ride on the cheese bus, clap your hands.

   • 2009, Simon Jean, Do Nice Guys Ever Finish, page 14:

     Then the cheese buses pulled up and all the kids except us headed for the bus.

   • 2013, Carrolyn Pichet, Growing up in the Nation’s Capital, page 101:

     For me the good old days included walking a long distance to all-black Crummell Elementary School (there were no “cheese” busses back then) and attending all-black schools up through university.

   • 2014, Ebony Price, Shattered Pieces To A Broken Heart:

     So anyway, William Esham and I would be in school, but we were not in the same clasroom, but we rode the same bus home, so when it was time to get on the cheese bus (in those days we were not assigned seats, but nowadays, you are), I would get on the bus but I would never talk to anybody because I didn't know anybody at that time.

2. A bus that transports cheese from the factory to retailers.
   • 1955, Dairy Industries - Volume 20, page 231:

     Distribution and sales are maintained with the help of a "cheese bus", which covers eleven routes, each of which take two days.

   • 1959, International Dairy Federation, XVth International Dairy Congress - Volume 4, page 2296:

     The driver of each cheese bus (which, when loaded, weighs 10,500 kg) is a really skilled truck driver who has received sales training. The bus visits the customers in accordance with a fixed programme and the buyers take the cheeses they require direct from the bus.

   • 1991, International Dairy Federation, Bulletin - Issues 257-268, page 7:

     Some of these plants have a special "cheese bus", visiting stores and other types of customers regularly.