toboggan
Americannoun
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a long, narrow, flat-bottomed sled made of a thin board curved upward and backward at the front, often with low handrails on the sides, used especially in the sport of coasting over snow or ice.
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Also called boggin. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. a close-fitting knit cap worn in cold weather.
verb (used without object)
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to use, or coast on, a toboggan.
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to fall rapidly, as prices or one's fortune.
noun
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a light wooden frame on runners used for sliding over snow and ice
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a long narrow sledge made of a thin board curved upwards and backwards at the front
verb
Usage
What does toboggan mean? A toboggan is an old-timey sled. One kind is long and narrow with a curved-up front, and another kind has a flat platform on top of runners. Toboggan can also be used as a verb in exactly the same way that sled can be used as a verb, as in let’s go tobogganing. However, it can also mean to fall rapidly, especially in the context of nonphysical things like stock prices. Example: We found Grandpa’s old toboggan in the attic and rode it down the hill in the snow today—that thing really flies!
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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toboggansimple
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tobogganssimple
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have tobogganedperfect
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has tobogganedperfect
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am tobogganingprogressive
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are tobogganingprogressive
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is tobogganingprogressive
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have been tobogganingperfect progressive
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has been tobogganingperfect progressive
Past
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tobogganedsimple
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had tobogganedperfect
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was tobogganingprogressive
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were tobogganingprogressive
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had been tobogganingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of toboggan
First recorded in 1820–30; from Canadian French tabagane, from Maliseet-Passamaquoddy tʰapákən, Mi'kmaq topaĝan (equivalent to unrecorded Proto-Algonquian weta·pye·- “to drag a cord” + -kan- “instrument for”)
Explanation
A toboggan is a type of sled that's light and thin. When you use such a sled, you're tobogganing. If you live somewhere that gets snow in the winter, you might already know what a toboggan is: a thin sled with curving boards in the front that originated with Native Canadians. Tobogganing is a popular winter sport and a lot of fun. Tobogganing sometimes refers to luging, which is a very similar winter sport. You can go extremely fast on a toboggan. If you ride a toboggan well, maybe you'll end up in the Winter Olympics.
Vocabulary lists containing toboggan
Olympics Vocabulary for Champions
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Native American History - Introductory
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2015 Spelling Bee - Words from Round 2
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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:
Shortly after finishing “Mildred Pierce,” in April 1945, while shooting “Danger Signal,” Blythe broke her back when a toboggan on which she was riding overturned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2026
Families race down a toboggan run that weaves through the forest and, when winter's here, there's even a small ski resort.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2023
Through her research, she has learned he was an outdoorsman and with friends built a toboggan slide on the side of the mountain near their home.
From Seattle Times ● May 28, 2023
At Sattel-Hochstuckli, Mr. Bissig opened the summer toboggan chutes for the Christmas tourist season.
From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2023
Magic sometimes sat on the toboggan while Duane pulled, and she sometimes ran around Duane when she couldn’t sit still any longer because she was too excited thinking about going downhill.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
This Fremont ski bar has snowboards and toboggans adorning the walls, setting the mood while you sing sweet melodies.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
Scores of daytrippers from the capital, Santiago, took to skis, snowboards and toboggans to make the most of the thick powdery snow, with their faces obscured entirely by a combination of masks and goggles.
From Reuters ● Jul. 2, 2021
Autumn is faded blue jeans, oversized sweatshirts and stringy toboggans from a forgotten day.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 26, 2018
The local council is always about to run out of grit, and our boiler is definitely jinxed, but come the first snowfall "we are out playing truant with the toboggans".
From The Guardian ● Mar. 8, 2013
And hundreds of Cloud-Men’s children were frisking about all over the place and shrieking with laughter and sliding down the billows of the cloud on toboggans.
From "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl
As he waited to be tobogganed down the mountain by ski patrol, she followed her children Moses and Apple down the mountain, testifying that she was accustomed to having things done for her.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 31, 2023
Owens also said that Sanderson posted a “very happy, smiling picture” of himself online, being tobogganed down post-crash.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 21, 2023
Some of my favorite “Calvin and Hobbes” cartoons were those where the companions tobogganed through the woods.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 25, 2017
By the end of their nine-hour workday, the red-jacketed patrollers had tobogganed out multiple knee injuries and a broken ankle, responded to a few crashes with trees and patched one bloody chin.
From Washington Post
Then it turned, and with outstretched flippers, tobogganed down on its white stomach.
From "Mr. Popper's Penguins" by Florence Atwater and Richard Atwater
Many people took the opportunity to build snowmen and enjoy a day of sledging, transforming hills across the country into tobogganing slopes.
From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2026
Snow Land is a little more interesting, with tobogganing penguins to avoid around its frozen lake.
From The Verge ● Aug. 8, 2022
Street tobogganing is just one of many memorable activities families can experience on the Portuguese island of Madeira, part of an archipelago of the same name that includes three other islands.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 4, 2022
Terry Scott Cohen, 42, enjoys roller coasters, mushing in Alaska and tobogganing in the Pyrenees Mountains.
From New York Times ● Feb. 3, 2017
We’d get a piece of cardboard and go tobogganing down the depot’s narrow staircase.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
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.
