DCHP-1 Online

caboose [ult. < Du. kabuis (?) kaban-huis wretched hut; influenced in Canadian usage by F cambuse camboose, also apparently < Du. or LG source] The term seems to have come into English in the Dutch maritime sense of "cook's cabin or galley," being extended to denote a stove on a boat, an open fireplace, a heated hut, shanty, mobile bunkhouse, etc. The form cambuse (kã'by:z) has long been current in French Canada in several senses (stove, storage place, bunkhouse on logging trains, etc.). Sense 1 is probably of U.S. origin but may have been influenced by camboose, q.v..

• 1 † n. a stove, used by voyageurs, explorers, etc.

  See also: camboose (def. 1)  

  • 1853  (1892)  Only yesterday they were ready to eat the caboose up, for I would not give them any pemmican.
  • 1913  The cook's caboose on deck was the only place where a fire was allowed.

• 2a n. Lumbering, Hist. on a lumber raft, a simple shed, often without walls, having a floor of deep sand and used as a sheltered fireplace for cooking purposes.

  • 1806  (1903)  . . . the hurricane swept the masts, tents, cabins, and even the roof of the caboose away down stream, and scattered the cribs in all directions.
  • 1878  The pine-knots . . . have their uses in lighting up the caboose fires on the lumber rafts. . .

• 2b n. an open fireplace in the living quarters of a lumber camp.

  See also: camboose (def. 2)  

  • 1883  . . . the shanty is heated by means of what is called a "caboose," or open fire place from which the smoke makes its exit by an opening in the roof.
  • 1891  . . . the great fire . . . crackled in the caboose.
  • 1923  (1929)  He had heard talk around the caboose. . . .

• 3 †  a railway car equipped as living quarters for a freight-train crew and having a cupola commanding a view of the train, of which it is the end car.

  • 1879  A locomotive train with a large amount of freight and a caboose full of laborers left this morning for Cross Lake from the St. Boniface station of the C.P.R.
  • 1966  My train--a dozen freight cars plus an antique caboose--was waiting on a siding.

• 4a n. West a bunk-house, such as used by threshing crews, mounted on wheels in summer and on runners or bobs in winter.

  See also: sleeping-caboose  

  • 1922  So the threshing season wore on. We ate in a cook-car, slept in a "caboose," and worked from dawn until dark. Sometimes, to finish a "set" we would burn a straw pile and work by its light. . . .
  • 1933  . . . hitching your powerful team to the caboose, you draw it rumbling out of the farmyard for the last time, followed by the parade of ricks . . . and the line thunders along the road like a retreating army. . .

• 4b n. West a type of dwelling on runners having some of the functions of a modern house-trailer.

  See also: van ((n.)) (def. 2)  wanigan (def. 4a)  

  • 1912  . . . in the later winter one sees, not infrequently, a caboose on a sled, heading for the Peace River district or for some point up north. This is a comfortable way of travelling, and on arriving at his claim the homesteader shifts the caboose to the ground and uses it for a house.
  • 1956  Each team of [winter] fishermen lives in a "caboose," a light well-insulated shack about 12 feet long and 10 feet wide mounted on skids. Each caboose is on the ice near the nets and may be miles from land, even from another fisherman. When the general locality of the nets is changed, the caboose and the fishing gear are towed to a new location by a snowmobile or other vehicle.
  • 1963  He has a blanketed team drawing a caboose on runners. In this there is a small wood-burning sheet-iron heater. . .

• 4c n. North a portable house.

  • 1965  New Holman [N.W.T.] is a wide scattering of two teacherages, a modern two room school, a powerhouse, a warehouse and many small, square plywood boxes called cabooses which are being built for the Eskimos

• 5a n. North a bunkhouse and cook-house on bobs, or runners, serving the needs of the crew on a cat-train or other group of vehicles.

  See also: bob  living wanigan  wanigan (def. 4b)  

  • 1934  Working shifts of six hours on and six off, the crews slept in the heated caboose and prepared their meals en route.
  • 1959  Lamb pulled twelve of his best men off other jobs, fitted them out with four D-t cats, a dozen sleighs, cabooses for eating and sleeping

• 5b n. any enclosed structure on bobs or runners functioning as part of a cat-train, whether for the crew or for perishable freight.

  See also: sled (def. 4)  

  • 1949  Hauling the cabooses as far as possible, the big caterpillar then doubled back for the freight and blacksmith shop.

• 6a n. Obs. a small, dingy bedroom.

  • 1891  [They] put me in some stuffy little caboose way up onto the fourth flat. . .

• 6b n. Obs. a small, low-class tavern.

  See also: shebang (def. 1)  

  • 1916  "He's been lying drunk at Gauntry's caboose ever since yesterday morning. . . ." "Gauntry's tavern--that joint," exclaimed Osterhaut with repulsion.