tonneau

Noun

tonneau (plural tonneaus or tonneaux)

1. The rear body or compartment of some types of motor vehicle, especially one containing seats for passengers.
   • From the tonneau of Bentley's car the sheriff and Garland removed the groceries and sick-room supplies, stowing them in the kyacks.1920, Peter B. Kyne, “The Understanding Heart”, in Ch.XV (Usenet)
   • The first step was to install a tonneau cover.1982 March, “How to improve your pickup′s mileage”, in Popular Mechanics, page 102
2. An old-style open passenger vehicle with a tonneau (rear compartment with seats).
   • He has spent ten years lovingly restoring a rather luxurious tonneau with teak panelling and leather seats.
   • It was flood-tide along Fifth Avenue; motor, brougham, and victoria swept by on the glittering current; pretty women glanced out from limousine and tonneau; young men of his own type, silk-hatted, frock-coated, the crooks of their walking sticks tucked up under their left arms, passed on the Park...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “His Own People”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 6