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cattle car

American  

noun

  1. Railroads. stock car.

  2. Slang. a railroad passenger car providing little comfort and few amenities.


Etymology

Origin of cattle car

An Americanism dating back to 1860–65


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 Jewish girl and her family were first imprisoned in a ghetto on the outskirts of town and later forced onto a cattle car that took them to the Pechora concentration camp in 1941.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 18, 2023

Schwarz’s father, a Hungarian Jew, was 19 years old in 1944 when he was loaded onto a cattle car bound for Bergen-Belsen.

From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2023

“When you get in a cattle car, you don’t really know what’s going to happen to you,” Ron said.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 29, 2022

Her journey, and that of my parents, began by railroad, crammed in a cattle car in Latvia that eventually took them to a refugee camp in Austria.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 18, 2022

My father, brother, and I were packed into a cattle car along with other male workers bound for Schindler's new factory.

From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson

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