Meaning & use
cattle car
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Meanings
nouncountableAmerican
A railroad freight wagon built to carry cows and other farm animals.
Grammar: Countable compound noun: a cattle car, two cattle cars; British English prefers cattle truck.
Patterns
- a train of cattle cars
A line of cattle cars waited at the station.
Farmers loaded the animals into the cattle car early.
The old cattle car now stands in a railroad museum.
nouncountablefigurativedisapproving
Any packed vehicle in which people are moved like animals, without comfort or dignity.
Grammar: Figurative and critical; stronger than crowded bus.
Patterns
- like a cattle car
The subway at rush hour felt like a cattle car.
Passengers called the budget flight a cattle car in the sky.
The overbooked shuttle was a cattle car with no seats.
nouncountable
A freight wagon used in the twentieth century to deport people to camps, remembered as a symbol of that cruelty.
Grammar: A serious historical use, so avoid it as a casual joke.
Patterns
- deported in cattle cars
Prisoners were forced into cattle cars during the war.
The exhibit includes a preserved cattle car.
Survivors described the journey in a sealed cattle car.
Word forms
| plural | cattle cars |
|---|
Common combinations
- packed like a cattle car
- The train was packed like a cattle car.
- load a cattle car
- Workers loaded the cattle car at dawn.
- ride in a cattle car
- Soldiers had to ride in a cattle car.
- cattle car conditions
- Cattle car conditions made the trip unbearable.
Synonyms and how they differ
- livestock wagon
- Livestock wagon is a plain technical term, while cattle car is the usual spoken form.
- stock car
- Stock car is an older railroad term for a livestock wagon and can also mean a racing car, so it is easy to misread.
- sardine can
- Sardine can, used figuratively, stresses tight packing but not the loss of dignity.
Opposites
Word family
- cattle noun
- cows kept for milk or meat
- boxcar noun
- an enclosed freight wagon
- railcar noun
- any railroad vehicle
- cattle truck noun
- British term for a similar vehicle
Commonly confused: cattle car or cattle grid?
cattle car vs cattle grid
A cattle grid is a road barrier of metal bars that stops animals crossing, not a vehicle.
Practice
Passengers complained that the rush-hour train was a ______, with no room to move.
Choose one answer.
Cattle car is used figuratively for a vehicle packed with people. Sleeper car, dining car and luxury coach suggest comfort, so they do not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cattle car”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.