Home UK English toboggan

Meaning of toboggan in English:

toboggan

Pronunciation /təˈbɒɡ(ə)n/

Translate toboggan into Spanish

noun

  • A long, light, narrow vehicle, typically on runners, used for sliding downhill over snow or ice.

    ‘Then, my daughter slid off the toboggan head first into a snow bank, and when I pulled her out she took from her mouth her first missing tooth.’
    • ‘In snow, it drove like a toboggan, but with worse steering.’
    • ‘However, it is not yet clear if the New Year will start on a sufficiently white note to allow children in the Republic to dust off their snowboards and toboggans.’
    • ‘The day of the party promises mittens and hats, mufflers and ski pants, toboggans and sleds.’
    • ‘The camp appeared kind of unearthly from a short distance away - two tiny bright yellow pyramid tents, four wooden sledges, and two shining orange toboggans in a vast sea of white, dwarfed by the awesome, dark brown brooding mountains.’
    • ‘Next was on a toboggan: ‘Beware: sled may develop high speed under certain snow conditions.’’
    • ‘To stand on the footbridges that straddle the Run and look up the ice as riders on toboggans hurtle head-first beneath your feet at speeds of 120 km/h or better is to be awed by the boundlessness of human folly.’
    • ‘They were digging holes to make ramps for their toboggans and causing serious damage.’
    • ‘Fred tells him that he is interested in toboggans.’
    • ‘We have a moment to relax before joining a group for our evening activity - ‘bum sliding’ down the pistes on tiny toboggans.’
    • ‘Two smaller toboggans carried the rest of the gear.’
    • ‘Beyond a small circle of knuckle draggers with a death wish, will aircraft-grade aluminum toboggans and such sell?’
    • ‘I always used to walk across the lake, skate on it, and even pull toboggans across it…’
    • ‘What finally remains of the peaks of Monument Valley when the world goes to sleep, as men depart on their toboggans to live in the suburbs?’
    • ‘Rumour circulated the next day that some intrepids ventured up to the top of Bourke Street with toboggans in a midnight mission.’
    • ‘We then load the blocks onto toboggans, haul them to the ice house, and stack and pack them with sawdust on all sides.’
    • ‘This is the skeleton, so called because of the distinct appearance of the first metal toboggans.’
    • ‘At Pelican Creek, the men unhitched the dogs, rolled up their pants, took off their boots, picked up the toboggan with the calves, and waded across.’
    • ‘They brought him down the mountain on a toboggan.’
    • ‘Bring an inner-tube or a roll-up toboggan or something, so if the pigs show up you can pull a fancy Batman escape, zipping down the east face, giggling like an imp.’

verb

[no object]usually go tobogganing

  • Slide downhill over snow on a toboggan.

    ‘my kids love to go tobogganing in the park before Christmas dinner’
    • ‘we tobogganed down a steep hill nearby’
    • ‘She also enjoyed tobogganing down the Cresta Run.’
    • ‘There were a group of older kids tobogganing down there, and residents said they were deliberately crashing into the trees.’
    • ‘As the country was gripped by cold, children and adults were snowballing and tobogganing.’
    • ‘On the first snow day of the school year, Angelo phoned Squire and asked if he wanted to join him and his brothers tobogganing at the state park which had a good sledding hill.’
    • ‘Go tobogganing: If skiing, boarding or snowmobiling are simply beyond your means, go find a cardboard box and a hill.’
    • ‘Chuck a few snowballs around, maybe make a snowman, go tobogganing - all good fun.’
    • ‘I went tobogganing with my sister and her friend, using those big industrial plastic sacks as sledges.’
    • ‘The actress let out a scream as she tobogganed down a hill at the ski resort of Banff in Alberta, Canada.’
    • ‘The three of us spent four weeks touring around Europe, ending up with friends in Austria, making snow men and tobogganing down the slopes!’
    • ‘We went to New Hampshire for a long winter party weekend and at some point one evening decided to toboggan down the empty ski slope before the sun set.’

Origin

Early 19th century from Canadian French tabaganne, from Micmac topaĝan ‘sled’.