boxcar

noun box·car \ ˈbäks-ˌkär \

Definition of boxcar

:a roofed freight car usually with sliding doors in the sides

See boxcar defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of boxcar from the Web

An adventurous kid, Kelly hitchhiked across the U.S. as a teen and rode an empty boxcar back east before his 16th birthday, and then joined the Merchant Marine to see the world (his first ship delivered 10,000 tons of beer to Vietnam).

— michael duffy, Time, "Why General John Kelly is Trump’s Last Hope," 10 Aug. 2017
The whistle came first, a warning, followed by a distant roar, and then a bump, bump, bumping, as a hundred boxcars lurched past some distant crossing.

— rick bragg, Southern Living, "Stillness of Summer," 13 July 2017
Adjacent to the town was a gigantic rail yard where switch engines moved and assembled incoming boxcars into long trains, which would then be towed, to distant cities where their contents would be devoured for the war effort.

— Cincinnati.com, "Column: The old printer memories," 31 May 2017
Looming over the boxcar, a two-story wall of historic photographs of people with a local connection to the Holocaust lends a chilling personal connection to the families and communities torn apart by hatred and violence.

— tiffini theisen, Jewish Journal, "LOCAL: Florida Holocaust Museum educates, touches emotions," 15 May 2017
The centerpiece, both literally and emotionally, is railroad boxcar #113-0695-5, used by the Nazis to forcibly transport Jews and other prisoners.

— tiffini theisen, Jewish Journal, "LOCAL: Florida Holocaust Museum educates, touches emotions," 15 May 2017
Corridor Brewery & Provisions Sky-blue vintage metal armchairs and bench seating made from the flooring of old railroad boxcars surround reclaimed wood tables with umbrellas on the Lakeview brewpub's patio for 22.

— adam lukach and samantha nelson, chicagotribune.com, "100-plus Chicago patios and rooftops for summer eating and drinking," 12 May 2017
Halliburton workers from the Indian subcontinent welded metal shipping containers to create about 720 individual steel and mesh cells in boxcar-style arrangements on a site near the coast, which the captives could not see.

— miamiherald, "Guantánamo prison: A primer," 26 Oct. 2016
Appealing yet another refusal of her application, in 1957, to emigrate with her new family, Hella said she had been put aboard a boxcar to Auschwitz.

— ralph blumenthal, New York Times, "In Berlin, Unraveling a Family Mystery," 22 June 2016

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'boxcar.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.