brake-van
noun
the caboose of a railway train.
brake-van
American
[brayk-van]
/ ˈbreɪkˌvæn /
noun
British.
brake van
British
noun
Etymology
Origin of brake-van
First recorded in 1880–85
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:
After forty-eight hours of semi-starvation in a brake-van, the name of the junction, in spite of the ill-natured tones which gave voice to it, sounded sweeter than the chimes of bells.
From On the Heels of De Wet by Lionel James
About Tell el-Kabír, the brake-van also waxed unsafely warm; but it reached Zagázig without developing more caloric.
From The Land of Midian — Volume 2 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
This eventually took the form of being driven to the nearest railway terminus, a short day's journey, and being deposited in a first-class carriage, with all their effects in the brake-van, carefully labelled.
From The Crooked Stick or Pollies's Probation by Rolf Boldrewood
At this crisis I had the luck to come across my friend Inspector Hooper, Cape Government Railways, in command of an engine and a brake-van chalked for repair.
From Traffics and Discoveries by Rudyard Kipling
It is composed of ten trucks and vans, and has besides a guard's brake-van fitted with a screw-down brake of the usual sort.
From The Harmsworth Magazine, v. 1, 1898-1899, No. 2 by Various
He swung a swag on to the platform, shouldered it, pulled out a billy and water-bag, and then went to a dog-box in the brake van.
From While the Billy Boils by Henry Lawson
For carriage lighting any ordinary type of generator, preferably, perhaps, fitted with a displacement holder, can be erected either in each corridor carriage, or in a brake van at the end of the train.
From Acetylene, the Principles of Its Generation and Use A Practical Handbook on the Production, Purification, and Subsequent Treatment of Acetylene for the Development of Light, Heat, and Power by F. H. (Frank Henley) Leeds
The battery is carried in a box in the brake van.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 312, December 24, 1881 by Various
By the time that the engine and tender had been uncoupled from the foremost car, the guard had come through the corridors from the brake van to know what had happened.
From Sergeant Silk the Prairie Scout by Robert Leighton
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.
