toboggan

plural toboggans · alternative tobogin · alternative toboggin

1. 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.

   The toboggan may be described as a flat plank turned up at one end.

   1885, A. T. Tucker (Alfred Thomas Tucker) Wise, Alpine Winter in Its Medical Aspects: With Notes on Davos Platz, Wiesen, St. Moritz, and the Maloja

   5 more examples

   Toboggan has not yet found its Way into the dictionaries, and there are other ways of spelling it.

   1877, John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms, 2nd enlarged edition

   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.

   1882, Louis Prosper Bender, Old and New Canada. 1753-1844: Historic Scenes and Social Pictures, Or, The Life of Joseph-Francois Perrault

   The “toboggan” is a light flat sleigh, used by the Canadian aborigines to bring home over the snow the spoils of the hunt.

   1884, Henry Chadwick, The Sports and Pastimes of American Boys: A Guide and Text-book of Games of the Play-ground, the Parlor, and the Field Adapted Especially for American Youth, G. Routledge and sons, page 201

   A toboggan consists of two pieces of bark joined side by side and curved up at the front.

   1887, Marjory Kennedy-Fraser, David Kennedy, David Kennedy: The Scottish Singer : Reminiscences of His Life and Work

   Every half hour or so one or the other would steal off with snowshoes and toboggan to make the round of the holes, often returning with half a dozen fish that together weighed perhaps twelve pounds, perhaps twenty-four pounds[…]

   1897, Charles A. Bramble, “Winter Fishing Through the Ice”, in The Sportsman's Magazine, page 430

   Synonyms: sled, sledge

2. CanadaUSA 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.

   1847, Abraham Gesner, New Brunswick; with Notes for Emigrants: Comprehending the Early History, an Account of the Indians, Settlement, Topography, Statistics, Commerce, Timber, Manufactures, Agriculture, Fisheries, Geology, Natural History, Social and Political State, Immigrants, and Contemplated Railways of that Province

   2 more examples

   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.

   1889, John G. Donkin, Trooper and Redskin in the Far North-west: Recollections of Life in the North-west Mounted Police

   The steer dog next to the sleigh prevents this by immediately leading off at a sixty-degree angle from the direction the others are going, thereby compensating for the sidewise stress and keeping the toboggan in the clear until the bend has been passed.

   2006, Cornelius Osgood, Winter

   Synonyms: sledge, cariole, carriole

3. figurativelySomething which, once it starts going (figuratively) downhill, is unstoppable until it reaches the bottom.

   If we were to hit the toboggan of a depression, wages would drop.

   1948, U.S. House of Representatives, Hearing before the Committee on Banking and Currency, on S.J. Res. 157, joint resolution to aid in protecting the Nation's economy against inflationary pressures. 80th Congress, 2nd Session July 29-August 4, 1948

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   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.

   1907, Joe Vila, The Sporting News, read in Gordon H. Fleming, The Unforgettable Season (2006)

   Farming was on “the toboggan.” New settlers who had purchased land could not meet their deferred payments.

   1989, C.W. Peterson, Wake Up, Canada!: Reflections on Vital National Issues

   The fact that I agreed showed that there was no hope of getting off the toboggan more than momentarily.

   2003, Jim Harrison, Off to the Side: A Memoir

   We all have found out that once a show goes into rehearsal, it's a toboggan slide and there's not enough time. So we had six months of preproduction meetings.

   1992, Sheldon Harnick, from an interview featured in The Art of the American Musical: Conversations with the Creators (2005), edited by Jackson R. Bryer, Richard Allan Davison

4. Southern USVirginiaWestespecially South Carolina; North Carolina; especially South Carolina; North CarolinaA knit cap, designed to provide warmth in cold weather.

   Sissy bounded back in dressed in a heavy sweater and toboggan.

   1992, Wallace Neal Briggs, Riverside Remembered

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   Suppose we wish to make a pointed cap, such as used to be known as a toboggan cap, from yarn or worsted.

   1915, William Rush Dunton, Occupation therapy

   If you must adorn your dog with a hat, go with a toboggan-style hat. If It was good enough for Snoopy, It Is definitely good enough for your dog.

   2005, Dave Smith, Life's Too Short to Be an Underdog...And Other Spiritual Life Lessons I Learned from My Dog

   We used an old toboggan stuffed with cotton for the ball, and it served the purpose very well.

   2006, Frances Stegall, Grass Roots: 80 Years in Bailey Co.

   Synonyms: toboggan cap, watch cap, beanie, tuque

present singular third person toboggans · participle present tobogganing · participle present tobogganning · participle past tobogganed · past tobogganed · participle past tobogganned · past tobogganned · alternative tobogin · alternative toboggin

1. intransitiveTo slide down a hill on a toboggan or other object.

   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.

   1888, Alfred Thomas Tucker Wise, Alpine winter in its medical aspects

   3 more examples

   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.

   1887, E. Katherine (Emily Katherine) Bates, A Year in the Great Republic

   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.

   1916, William John Thomas, (John) Doran, Henry Frederick Turle, Joseph Knight, Vernon Horace Rendall, Florence Hayllar, Notes and Queries

   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.

   2006, Nita Hughes, The Cathar Legacy

2. figurativelyintransitiveTo 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.

   1945, Emil Rieve, International Labor Standards, A Key to World Security, pamphlet

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   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.

   2006, Keith Dixon, Altered Life

   Synonyms: toboggan down

3. transitiveTo convey on a toboggan.
4. intransitiveaeronauticsTo 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.

   1961, Wings, volumes 31-33, page 11

   1 more example

   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.

   2005, The Mobility Forum: The Journal of the Air Mobility Command, page 21