toboggan
noun
- A simple sled which is a traditional form of transport used by the Innu and Cree of northern Canada.In modern times, it is used on snow to carry one or more people (often children) down a hill or other slope for recreation.
verb
- to coast on or as if on a toboggan
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /təˈbɒɡ.ən/ / /təˈbɑːɡ.ən/
noun
Etymology: The noun is attested since 1829, the verb since 1846. Both derive from French tabaganne, which derives from an Algonquian word, probably Mi'kmaq tepaqan or Abenaki dabôgan, influenced by similar words in other Eastern Canadian Algonquian languages. The sense of "hat" is recorded since 1929 and is short for toboggan cap (1928), a cap suitable for wearing while tobogganing.
- A long sled without runners, with the front end curled upwards, which may be pulled across snow by a cord or used to coast down hills.
“Toboggan has not yet found its Way into the dictionaries, and there are other ways of spelling it.”
“Nothing could be more exciting and exhilarating than a slide, on sleigh or toboggan, from the lofty summit of the ice-mound or cone down to its base.”
- A similar sled of wood, pulled by dogs, possibly with steel runners, made to transport cargo.
“The old toboggan has been laid aside, and sleighs or waggons dash along the streets.”
“These animals are harnessed by a padded collar to a light flat sleigh, of skins stretched across a frame of thin wood, called a toboggan.”
- Something which, once it starts going (figuratively) downhill, is unstoppable until it reaches the bottom.
“McGinnity began to hit the toboggan in 1906, after he had pitched his arm off the previous year. Last season his efforts at times were painful.”
“If we were to hit the toboggan of a depression, wages would drop.”
- A knit cap, designed to provide warmth in cold weather.
“Suppose we wish to make a pointed cap, such as used to be known as a toboggan cap, from yarn or worsted.”
“Sissy bounded back in dressed in a heavy sweater and toboggan.”
verb
Etymology: The noun is attested since 1829, the verb since 1846. Both derive from French tabaganne, which derives from an Algonquian word, probably Mi'kmaq tepaqan or Abenaki dabôgan, influenced by similar words in other Eastern Canadian Algonquian languages. The sense of "hat" is recorded since 1929 and is short for toboggan cap (1928), a cap suitable for wearing while tobogganing.
- To slide down a hill on a toboggan or other object.
“Mr. Macaulay, the landlord, insisted upon trying to "toboggan" us down the mountain on the saddle cloth of one of the horses, an attempt that ended of course in disaster, for the surface was much too small for the three of us, and the snow too soft for the purpose.”
“The aspect of this patient was greatly changed for the better; she was able to skate, toboggan, and mount 500 feet of Maloja Pass without fatigue.”
- To go downhill unstoppably until one reaches the bottom.
“A depression in one nation can become the slide on which our civilization would toboggan into economic collapse.”
“I can't win, can I? You think I'm posh and my folks think I'm tobogganing down-market faster than the royal family.”
- To fly sharply downward so as to build up speed to facilitate in-flight refueling of a faster aircraft.
“Aircraft returning to refuel at about three o'clock have tobogganed down to their spats in the mud whilst early in the morning one could bounce a crowbar on the frozen ground.”
“How did a piston engine tanker refuel a faster jet bomber? It "tobogganed" - the refueling connection would be made high up and then the bomber and tanker flew "downhill" together enabling the tanker to pick up more speed.”