caboose

American  

[kuh-boos] / kəˈbus /

noun

• cabooses
  plural

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.

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caboose British  

/ kəˈbuːs /

noun

1. informal short for calaboose

2. railways a guard's van, esp one with sleeping and eating facilities for the train crew

3. nautical

   1. a deckhouse for a galley aboard ship or formerly in Canada, on a lumber raft

   2. the galley itself

4. 1. a mobile bunkhouse used by lumbermen, etc

   2. an insulated cabin on runners, equipped with a stove

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cabooses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of caboose

1740–50; < early modern Dutch cabūse ( Dutch kabuis ) ship's galley, storeroom; compare Low German kabuus, kabüse, Middle Low German kabuse booth, shed; further origin uncertain

Explanation

A caboose is a train car that is usually at the end. If you are pulling up the rear, you could call yourself the caboose. The engine is the first car on a freight train, and the last car is usually the caboose. Besides being last, the other feature of a caboose is its use by the crew. Most of a freight train will be filled with whatever cargo they're transporting, and they need to use that space as efficiently as possible. The caboose is where the crew can hang out during the trip. If there's a kitchen on the train, it will usually be in the caboose.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

caboose cabooses

“There are some parallels here that I think we need to think about because you always want the caboose going fast, slower than the front of the engine, and that’s not what’s happening,” he said.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026

The group came together at Sedalia, Mo., high school, scrounged up money and bought a caboose from a local salvage yard.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026

The band has kicked off previous albums in New York with great fanfare, once rolling down Fifth Avenue on a flatbed truck and on another occasion riding on a caboose into Grand Central Terminal.

From Reuters ● Oct. 20, 2023

An old railroad caboose has been transformed into The Railway Cafe, offering coffee, light breakfast and lunch.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023

As the calliope swung into ‘Marching Through Georgia’, Uncle Sam unfolded himself out of the caboose.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

And now, not only do we know they risked riders’ lives for years, but the swift action to cover their cabooses cripples the region’s infrastructure.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 21, 2021

Somewhere on Frankfort Avenue live dinosaurs, buffalo, long-horned cattle, steam engines and cabooses.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 18, 2016

In the long run, though, two-man crews may become another relic of the industry, “The same way nobody still thinks we need cabooses on the back of trains,” said Grady Cothen, former administrator at the FRA.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2016

This is a guy who speaks of himself in the third person and speaks of cabooses.

From Time ● Nov. 10, 2011

Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. 

From Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Related Words

• box
• camp
• chalet
• compartment
• cottage
• home
• hut
• lodge
• room
• shack
• shanty
• shed
• shelter