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n. 1. The last car on a freight train, often having kitchen and sleeping facilities for the train crew, and used as a vantage point for spotting problems on the train, such as smoking brakes or the separation of cars. The introduction of electronic sensors has made the caboose unnecessary. 2. Archaic a. A ship's galley. b. Any of various cast-iron cooking ranges used in such galleys during the early 1800s. c. An outdoor oven or fireplace. [Possibly from obsolete Dutch cabuse, ship's galley, from Middle Low German kabūse : perhaps *kab-, cabin; akin to Old French cabane; see CABIN + Middle High German hūs, house.] |
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