| a railroad car fitted with berths, compartments, bedrooms, or drawing rooms for passengers to sleep in. |
| sleeping car n. A railroad car having accommodations for sleeping. |
sleeping car
railroad coach designed for overnight passenger travel. The first sleeping cars were put in service on American railroads as early as the 1830s, but these were makeshift; the first car designed for comfortable nighttime travel was the Pullman sleeper, which was commercially introduced by George M. Pullman and Ben Field in 1865. The sleeping car made its appearance in Britain and Europe somewhat later and was variously named with words meaning "car" and "bed" or "sleep," as in French wagon-lit or German Schlafwagen.
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