toboggan
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /təˈbɒɡ.ən/
ipa: /təˈbɑːɡ.ən/
rhymes: -ɒɡən
Forms: form: toboggans
form: tobogganing
form: tobogganning
form: tobogganed
form: tobogganed
form: tobogganned
form: tobogganned
form: tobogin
form: toboggin
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.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1887, E. Katherine (Emily Katherine) Bates, A Year in the Great Republic:
text: 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.
ref: 1888, Alfred Thomas Tucker Wise, Alpine winter in its medical aspects:
text: I froze my toes some years ago, while tobogganing, and was unaware of it until I took off my shoe and walked across the room, when the unusual noise on the boards attracted my attention.
ref: 1916, William John Thomas, (John) Doran, Henry Frederick Turle, Joseph Knight, Vernon Horace Rendall, Florence Hayllar, Notes and Queries:
text: The hillside, lined with a coating of wet leaves ready to toboggan her down the slope, made her grateful for a few saplings that provided handholds.
ref: 2006, Nita Hughes, The Cathar Legacy:
glosses: To slide down a hill on a toboggan or other object.
examples: text: A depression in one nation can become the slide on which our civilization would toboggan into economic collapse.
ref: 1945, US House of Representatives, 1945 extension of the Reciprocal trade agreements act: hearings before the Committee on finance, United States Senate, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session, on H.R. 3240, an act to extend the authority of the President under section 350 of the Tariff act of 1930, as amended, and for other purposes
text: 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.
ref: 2006, Keith Dixon, Altered Life:
glosses: To go downhill unstoppably until one reaches the bottom.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1961, Wings, volumes 31-33, page 11:
text: 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.
ref: 2005, The Mobility Forum: The Journal of the Air Mobility Command, page 21:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To fly sharply downward so as to build up speed to facilitate in-flight refueling of a faster aircraft.
Derived terms: word: power toboggan
word: sleboggan
word: toboggan cap
word: toboggan down
word: tobogganer
word: tobogganing
word: tobogganist
word: toboggan run
word: toboggan slide
Related terms: sled
sledge
sleigh
bobsled
bobsleigh
luge