caboose

Etymology

From French cambuse, from Middle Dutch kabuys, kabuis (Modern Dutch kombuis (“galley; kitchen”)).

noun

1. (obsolete, nautical) A small galley or cookhouse on the deck of a small vessel.
2. (historical, nautical) A small sand-filled container used as an oven on board ship.
   On the second day out, while sailing moderately on our course in the Gulf Stream, a sudden squall of wind struck the ship from the SW. and knocked her completely on her beam-ends, stove one of our boats, entirely destroyed two others, and threw down the cambouse. 1821, Owen Chase, Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex …
   This stove is to be made in the form of a Franklin, but is to be furnished with an oven, and other means of cooking; its appearance is therefore more like that of the old fashioned caboose, than of a Franklin stove. 1841, Journal of the Franklin Institute, page 113
   A tremendous billow, fringed with foam, swept over our deck, carrying the cook's caboose, cooking utensils and stove right overboard into the sea. 1881, Eliza Davies, The Story of an Earnest Life, page 226
   The kitchens were kept separate because cooking was done in a caboose, a wooden box filled with sand and heated by a wood fire. 2002, Don Philpott, Cayman Islands
3. (US, rail transport) The last car on a freight train, having cooking and sleeping facilities for the crew; a guard’s van.
4. (slang, childish, euphemistic) The buttocks.
5. (slang, sports) The person or team in last place.
6. (informal, often in combination) A youngest child who is born after a long gap in time.
   Jimmy was seven and had just finished first grade, so that made Nancy our caboose baby — our bonus child — our swan song. 1987, Harriet Wallace Rose, Something's Wrong with My Child!
   "Caboose" children, the late-born last offspring in the family, didn't suffer from this as much. 1987, Growing Child Research Review - Volumes 5-7
   After looking back on her own experience, she thought of some ways parents could help ease the transition for their caboose kid. 2007, Beth K. Vogt, Baby Changes Everything, page 145