bobsled
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
Usage
What is bobsled? Bobsled is a sport in which racers ride a sled known as a bobsled (or bobsleigh) down an ice-covered chute with the goal of reaching the finish line as quickly as possible. The term bobsled is more commonly used (for both the event and the sled) in the U. S. and Canada, but bobsleigh is the official name of the event in the Winter Olympics. The sport is sometimes casually referred to as bobsledding. Bobsled competitions often involve teams of two or four, but there are also individual events. The one-person bobsled event is called monobob. (A women’s monobob event was added to the Winter Olympics in 2022.)Bobsleds consist of a tubelike structure on runners with a steering mechanism and brakes. At the start of each heat, the racer or racers push the bobsleigh to gain speed before jumping inside, with the rider at the front handling steering. Bobsled is known as one of the sliding sports, along with luge and skeleton. Those take place on a similar course, but racers in those events ride on top of their sled (feetfirst in luge, headfirst in skeleton), rather than inside of it like in bobsled. Bobsled is known for its high speeds, often nearing 100 mph (161 km/h). Example: I think bobsled is thrilling—and the start might be the most exciting part!
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bobsledsimple
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bobsledssimple
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have bobsleddedperfect
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has bobsleddedperfect
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am bobsleddingprogressive
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are bobsleddingprogressive
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is bobsleddingprogressive
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have been bobsleddingperfect progressive
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has been bobsleddingperfect progressive
Past
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bobsleddedsimple
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had bobsleddedperfect
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was bobsleddingprogressive
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were bobsleddingprogressive
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had been bobsleddingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bobsled
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The New York Times published stories several years ago about former bobsled and skeleton athletes who struggled with symptoms similar to what Person, Sisson and Baird describe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2026
Saturday’s medal was her sixth in Olympic bobsled competition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2026
"I am aware of the diatribe the commentator directed towards the Israeli bobsled team on the Swiss Olympic broadcast today," he wrote.
From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026
Meyers Taylor’s earliest Olympic ambitions didn’t involve bobsled, ice, or even the winter Games.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026
He was picking up speed, skidding downhill like a bobsled.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
The bobsleds entered the assembly line for their final ride of the day like planes readying to taxi.
From New York Times ● Feb. 17, 2022
Cold-weather sports require gloves and goggles and helmets, duffel bags bulging with hockey sticks, rifles for biathletes and four-man bobsleds the size of grand pianos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2022
Bodine helped create the “Bo-Dyn” project, one where the same principles that went into auto racing were turned into ways to build faster bobsleds.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 9, 2020
Kinney will compete with Sam Michener, Nick Cunningham and Hakeem Abdul-Saboor, who played football at the University of Virginia at Wise, in one of Team USA’s three four-man bobsleds at the PyeongChang Games.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 28, 2018
Other parties of girls from the Hall, dragging bobsleds, were appearing now.
From Nan Sherwood's Winter Holidays Rescuing the Runaways by Carr, Annie Roe
She told Olympics.com she’s returned to bobsledding in a “very different body,” but she feels motherhood has given her a new level of strength.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2026
Michelle has her hopes, this fearless young woman who took to bobsledding on her second time down the track.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 16, 2026
Indeed, Herschel Walker’s athletic record made him a state icon—he’s not only a former college football and NFL star, but he once also competed on the Olympic bobsledding team.
From Slate ● Oct. 12, 2022
And what she eventually realized was that her switch to track as a high school freshman was — unbeknownst to her — preparing her for bobsledding.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 16, 2022
That adventurous afternoon on Pendragon Hill was the last chance the girls of Lakeview Hall had that term for bobsledding.
From Nan Sherwood's Winter Holidays Rescuing the Runaways by Carr, Annie Roe
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
