midgate en · NOUN
Etymology
From mid- + gate. From being a door in the middle of a truck, separating the front half from the rear half.
Meanings
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A panel or door, forming the rear of the cab of a truck, separating it from the truckbed, that can be removed or folded away to expand the length of the truck bed.
The Avalanche’s raison d’être is theoretically its midgate — the rear wall of the cab, behind the second-row seats — which can be lowered to extend the 63-inch-long bed by another 34 inches inside the cab (displacing back-seat passengers in the process).
2007 July 22, Jerry Garrett, “Battle of the Beds: Suave S.U.V.’s With Pickup Lines”, in New York Times:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| midgates | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| mid gate | alternative | lexicographic | |
| mid-gate | alternative | lexicographic |