toboggan
Americannoun
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toboggans
plural
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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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toboggans,
present (3rd person singular)
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tobogganed,
past participle, past
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tobogganing
present participle
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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
At Sattel-Hochstuckli, Mr. Bissig opened the summer toboggan chutes for the Christmas tourist season.
From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2023
“We want to overtake the toboggan powerhouse Germany and become No. 1 on the ice track,” Prock said.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 21, 2022
Duane let go of the toboggan because there really was no purpose in them staying together at this point.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
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
Summer brings sunbathers, picnickers and sixth-formers sat in circles, while in winter, on those rare occasions it snows, people drag in toboggans.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 5, 2020
Autumn is faded blue jeans, oversized sweatshirts and stringy toboggans from a forgotten day.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 26, 2018
Then think of this: Once the toboggans hit the bottom of the chute, whistling through the surrounding trees, the wooden creations come screaming onto the ice of Hosmer Pond, like rudimentary rockets, wild and unleashed.
From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2017
“You could toboggan very well. Excellent Canadian toboggans are sold in Montreux. Ochs Brothers sell toboggans. They import their own toboggans.”
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
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
A boat broke loose and tobogganed up on the shore, and then another.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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
You may be thinking, and quite rightly, that after suggesting Whaleback Hill, followed by Double Whaleback Hill, to then suggest tobogganing down something called Baby Whaleback Hill would be somewhat less exciting, not more.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
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.
