¹toboggan

noun to·bog·gan \tə-ˈbä-gən\

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

Full Definition of TOBOGGAN

: a long flat-bottomed light sled made usually of thin boards curved up at one end with usually low handrails at the sides

: a downward course or a sharp decline

chiefly Southern & Midland : stocking cap

See toboggan defined for English-language learners

See toboggan defined for kids

Illustration of TOBOGGAN

Origin of TOBOGGAN

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

First Known Use: circa 1820

Other Dialect Terms

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

Rhymes with TOBOGGAN

Remagen

²toboggan

intransitive verb

: to ride on a toboggan especially down a hill

Full Definition of TOBOGGAN

: to coast on or as if on a toboggan

: to decline suddenly and sharply

— to·bog·gan·er noun

— to·bog·gan·ist \-gə-nist\ noun

First Known Use of TOBOGGAN

1846

TOBOGGAN[1] Defined for Kids

toboggan

noun to·bog·gan \tə-ˈbä-gən\

Definition of TOBOGGAN for Kids

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

Word History of 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.”