Toboggan Definition
tə-bŏgən
tobogganing, toboggans
noun
toboggans
A long, narrow, flat sled without runners, made of thin boards curved back at the front end and often having side rails: often used for the sport of coasting down a prepared slope or chute.
Webster's New World
(southern US) A winter hat or ski mask.
Wiktionary
Something which, once it starts going (figuratively) downhill, is unstoppable until it reaches the bottom.
Wiktionary
verb
tobogganing, toboggans
To ride on a toboggan.
Webster's New World
To decline or fall rapidly.
His good fortune has tobogganed.
American Heritage
To (figuratively) go downhill unstoppably until one reaches the bottom.
Wiktionary
Synonyms:
Origin of Toboggan
-
The noun is attested since 1829, the verb since 1846. Both derive from French tabaganne, which derives from an Algonquian word, probably the Mi'kmaq tepaqan or the Abenaki dabôgan, influenced by similar words in other Eastern Canadian Indian languages. The US sense, "hat", is recorded in 1929, and toboggan cap in 1928.
From Wiktionary
Canadian French tobagan from Mi'kmaq topaghan
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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