toboggan

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noun to·bog·gan \tə-ˈbä-gən\

Definition of toboggan

1 : a long flat-bottomed light sled made usually of thin boards curved up at one end with usually low handrails at the sides
2 : a downward course or a sharp decline
3 chiefly Southern US and Midland US : stocking cap

See toboggan defined for English-language learners

See toboggan defined for kids

Illustration of toboggan

Origin and Etymology of toboggan

Canadian French tobogan, of Algonquian origin; akin to Micmac tobâgun drag made of skin

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First Known Use: circa 1820

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Other Dialect Terms

bespoke, boughten, lave, muchacho, nigh, spunk, thunk

toboggan

verb to·bog·gan

Definition of toboggan

intransitive verb
1 : to coast on or as if on a toboggan
2 : to decline suddenly and sharply

tobogganer

noun

tobogganist

play \-gə-nist\ noun

See toboggan defined for English-language learners

Examples of toboggan in a Sentence

The kids tobogganed down the hill.

First Known Use of toboggan

1846

TOBOGGAN Defined for English Language Learners

toboggan

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noun

Definition of toboggan for English Language Learners

: a long, light sled that has a curved front and that is used for sliding over snow and ice

toboggan

verb

Definition of toboggan for English Language Learners

: to ride on a toboggan especially down a hill

TOBOGGAN Defined for Kids

toboggan

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noun to·bog·gan \tə-ˈbä-gən\

Definition of toboggan for Students

: a long light sled made without runners and curved up at the front

History for toboggan

Toboggan, a name for a kind of sled without runners, is borrowed from the languages of American Indians living in eastern Canada and the northeast United States. In Micmac, for example, a language spoken in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec, the word is tepaqan, and in Maliseet, spoken in New Brunswick, tapakon. These words go back to an older word in Algonquian, the language from which Micmac and Maliseet developed. The Micmac and Maliseet words were formed from wetapye-, “to drag with a cord” and -kan-, “implement, thing for doing something.”