tonneau

noun

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.”

   “The first step was to install a tonneau cover.”

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 side.”

3. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping)Clipping of tonneau cover.

   “The first step was to install a tonneau cover. Now most pickup tonneaus snap onto studs screwed into the bodywork. The snaps rust, the holes in the truck rust and the tonneau—because the snaps are spaced every foot or so along the edges—eventually rips around the snaps.”

   “Tonneaux were made of the same plasticised canvas material used for soft-tops.”