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caboose

 - 4 dictionary results

ca⋅boose

  [kuh-boos]
Use caboose in a Sentence
–noun
1. a car on a freight train, used chiefly as the crew's quarters and usually attached to the rear of the train.
2. British. a kitchen on the deck of a ship; galley.
3. Slang. the buttocks.
Origin:
1740–50; < early modern D cabūse (D kabuis) ship's galley, storeroom; cf. LG kabuus, kabüse, MLG kabuse booth, shed; further orig. uncert.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ca·boose   (kə-bōōs')   
n.  

  1. The last car on a freight train, having kitchen and sleeping facilities for the train crew.

  2. Obsolete

    1. A ship's galley.

    2. Any of various cast-iron cooking ranges used in such galleys during the early 19th century.

    3. An outdoor oven or fireplace.


[Possibly from obsolete Dutch cabuse, ship's galley, from Middle Low German kabūse : perhaps *kab-, cabin; akin to Old French cabane; see cabin + Middle High German hūs, house.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
caboose [kəˈbus]

  1. n.
    the buttocks. (From the name of the car at the end of a railroad train.) : You just plunk your caboose over there on the settee and listen up to what I have to tell you.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

caboose 
1747, from M.Du. kambuis "ship's galley," from Low Ger. kabhuse "wooden cabin on ship's deck." Railroading sense is 1861.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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