the coach or vehicle from which the guard applies the brakes; guard's van
brake-van in American English
(ˈbreikˌvæn)
noun
Brit
the caboose of a railway train
Word origin
[1880–85]This word is first recorded in the period 1880–85. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: jackpot, pari-mutuel, quotation mark, rain check, regionalism
Examples of 'brake van' in a sentence
brake van
He worked on the railways as a guard, riding at the end of the train in a wooden wagon, the brake van.