bobsled
Americannoun
-
bobsleds
plural
verb (used without object)
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bobsleds,
present (3rd person singular)
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bobsledded,
past participle, past
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bobsledding
present participle
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:
Flav was an official sponsor of the U.S. bobsled and skeleton teams at the Milan-Cortina Games.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026
Lolo Jones won three world championships on the track and two in a bobsled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
Elana Meyers Taylor took gold and Kaillie Humphries bronze in the women’s monobob bobsled competition Monday at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 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
A great delight it was to feel that certainty again, to know that I could steer my fortune and the world’s chance like a bobsled down the steep, dangerous hour.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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
Canada has typically had three women’s and two men’s bobsleds in World Cup events this season.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 29, 2021
In November 2014, Meyers Taylor and Humphries each piloted four-man bobsleds in a World Cup race.
From New York Times ● Feb. 20, 2018
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
The snow was deep, and often I joined the village children on their bobsleds.
From A Splendid Hazard by Harold MacGrath
While all share the commonality of being unconventional competitors in a space where they’re considered to be a rarity, bobsledding and ski jumping originated as European sports.
From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2024
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
There was yet another battle — this one within the sport of bobsledding — that she and Meyers Taylor waged together.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2022
After a friend explained bobsledding, he was intrigued.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 13, 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 Annie Roe Carr
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.
