cattle car
Americannoun
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Railroads. stock car.
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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.
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
“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
Stojka would paint the cattle car in which she was deported: a rickety thing, its rear window barred, charging into a sky burning white, pink and orange.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2020
He remembers watching through a hole in the wall of a cattle car as American soldiers rolled in with tanks.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2019
It was cold along the wall of the cattle car.
From "Prisoner B-3087" by Alan Gratz
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.
