Also cam-, can-, coboose. [Identical with Du. kabuis, kombuis, earlier Du. combûse, cabûse, MLG. kabhûse (whence mod.G. kabuse), also F. cambuse ‘app. introduced into the navy about the middle of the 18th c.’ (Littré). The original lang. was perh. LG.; but the history and etymology are altogether obscure.]
1. ‘The cook-room or kitchen of merchantmen on deck; a diminutive substitute for the galley of a man-of-war. It is generally furnished with cast-iron apparatus for cooking’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.).
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Coboose, a sort of box or house to cover the chimney of some merchant-ships. It somewhat resembles a centry-box, and generally stands against the barricade on the fore part of the quarter-deck.
1805. N. York Chron., in Naval Chron., XIII. 122. William Cameron drifted aboard on the canboose.
1805. Duncan, Marin. Chron., IV. 70. A sea broke … and swept away the caboose and all its utensils from the deck.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle (1862), 6. Fishing boats at anchor, all with their tiny cabooses.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 341. A sentry is constantly to be placed at the cooking-place or caboose.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, II. 375. The caboose and utensils must long ago have been washed overboard.
b. A cooking-oven or fireplace erected on land.
1859. [J. D. Burn], Autobiog. Beggar Boy, 93. The man … requested me to put his pannikin on the caboose fire.
1882. G. P. Lathrop, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 331/1. Outside are ‘cambooses,’ for preparing fish in the open air.
1883. Robert Adams, Jr., in Century Mag., XXVI. 550/2. The lawn is studded with cabooses.
2. U.S. A van or car on a freight train used by workmen or the men in charge.
1881. Chicago Daily Tribune, 18 June, 7/6. The caboose of the construction train, containing workmen and several boys … was struck by the freight, demolishing the caboose.
1884. Dakota paper, Jan. Four cars and a caboose running down the track.
