Definition of "toboggan"
toboggan
noun
plural toboggans
A long sled without runners, with the front end curled upwards, which may be pulled across snow by a cord or used to coast down hills.
Quotations
The “toboggan” is a light flat sleigh, used by the Canadian aborigines to bring home over the snow the spoils of the hunt.
1884, Henry Chadwick, The Sports and Pastimes of American Boys: A Guide and Text-book of Games of the Play-ground, the Parlor, and the Field Adapted Especially for American Youth, G. Routledge and sons, page 201
Every half hour or so one or the other would steal off with snowshoes and toboggan to make the round of the holes, often returning with half a dozen fish that together weighed perhaps twelve pounds, perhaps twenty-four pounds […]
1897, Charles A. Bramble, “Winter Fishing Through the Ice”, in The Sportsman's Magazine, page 430
(Canada, US) A similar sled of wood, pulled by dogs, possibly with steel runners, made to transport cargo.
Quotations
The old toboggan has been laid aside, and sleighs or waggons dash along the streets.
1847, Abraham Gesner, New Brunswick; with Notes for Emigrants: Comprehending the Early History, an Account of the Indians, Settlement, Topography, Statistics, Commerce, Timber, Manufactures, Agriculture, Fisheries, Geology, Natural History, Social and Political State, Immigrants, and Contemplated Railways of that Province
(figurative) Something which, once it starts going (figuratively) downhill, is unstoppable until it reaches the bottom.
Quotations
If we were to hit the toboggan of a depression, wages would drop.
1948, U.S. House of Representatives, Hearing before the Committee on Banking and Currency, on S.J. Res. 157, joint resolution to aid in protecting the Nation's economy against inflationary pressures. 80th Congress, 2nd Session July 29-August 4, 1948
verb
third-person singular simple present toboggans, present participle tobogganing or tobogganning, simple past and past participle tobogganed or tobogganned
To slide down a hill on a toboggan or other object.
Quotations
Mr. Macaulay, the landlord, insisted upon trying to "toboggan" us down the mountain on the saddle cloth of one of the horses, an attempt that ended of course in disaster, for the surface was much too small for the three of us, and the snow too soft for the purpose.
1887, E. Katherine (Emily Katherine) Bates, A Year in the Great Republic
I froze my toes some years ago, while tobogganing, and was unaware of it until I took off my shoe and walked across the room, when the unusual noise on the boards attracted my attention.
1916, William John Thomas, (John) Doran, Henry Frederick Turle, Joseph Knight, Vernon Horace Rendall, Florence Hayllar, Notes and Queries
(figurative) To go downhill unstoppably until one reaches the bottom.
Quotations
A depression in one nation can become the slide on which our civilization would toboggan into economic collapse.
1945, US House of Representatives, 1945 extension of the Reciprocal trade agreements act: hearings before the Committee on finance, United States Senate, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session, on H.R. 3240, an act to extend the authority of the President under section 350 of the Tariff act of 1930, as amended, and for other purposes