noun
caboose
kuh-BOOS
noun
1
The last car on a freight train, once used as sleeping and cooking quarters for the crew.
"Kids waved as the red caboose rattled past."
2
(informal, humorous) A youngest child born well after the others; also, slang for the buttocks.
"Their caboose came along ten years after her older siblings."
How to Use Caboose
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe trailing car of a freight train; informally, a last-born child or, slangily, the backside.
Common pairings
red caboose
the family caboose
Word Forms
cabooses plural, cabeese plural, caboosen plural
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Etymology
From Dutch kabuis/kombuis ("ship's galley"), which also gave German Low German Kabüüs — the train sense grew from the idea of a small onboard kitchen.