caboose
/kəˈbuːs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.59 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The last car on a freight train, consisting of cooking and sleeping facilities for the crew; a guard’s van.
American usage
Example Sentences
- "On the second day out, while sailing moderately on our course in the Gulf Stream, a sudden squall of wind struck the ship from the SW. and knocked her completely on her beam-ends, stove one of our boats, entirely destroyed two others, and threw down the cambouse."
- "This stove is to be made in the form of a Franklin, but is to be furnished with an oven, and other means of cooking; its appearance is therefore more like that of the old fashioned caboose, than of a Franklin stove."
- "A tremendous billow, fringed with foam, swept over our deck, carrying the cook's caboose, cooking utensils and stove right overboard into the sea."
- "The kitchens were kept separate because cooking was done in a caboose, a wooden box filled with sand and heated by a wood fire."
- "That's a pretty big caboose for a baby."
- "Jimmy was seven and had just finished first grade, so that made Nancy our caboose baby — our bonus child — our swan song."
Etymology
From Dutch kabuis, kombuis (“galley, kitchen”) or German Low German Kabüüs (“galley”), from Middle Dutch cabûse and Middle Low German kabûs, kabûse respectively. Cognate with German Kabüse, Kombüse, Danish kabys, Swedish kabyss, French combuse (< Middle Dutch kabuys). Probably related to English boose (“a stall or shed”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: kabuis, Kabüüs, cabûse, kabûs