car
1 Americannoun
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an automobile.
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a vehicle running on rails, as a streetcar or railroad car.
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the part of an elevator, balloon, modern airship, etc., that carries the passengers, freight, etc.
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British Dialect. any wheeled vehicle, as a farm cart or wagon.
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Literary. a chariot, as of war or triumph.
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Archaic. cart; carriage.
abbreviation
noun
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Also called: motorcar. automobile. a self-propelled road vehicle designed to carry passengers, esp one with four wheels that is powered by an internal-combustion engine
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( as modifier )
car coat
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a conveyance for passengers, freight, etc, such as a cable car or the carrier of an airship or balloon
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a railway vehicle for passengers only, such as a sleeping car or buffet car
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a railway carriage or van
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the enclosed platform of a lift
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a poetic word for chariot
abbreviation
Usage
What else does car mean? To most of us on the outside, a car is a vehicle with a motor and four wheels. But in prison slang, your car is your crew, especially when it comes to drugs, protection, and money-making.
Other Word Forms
- carless adjective
Etymology
Origin of car1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English carre, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin carra (feminine singular), from Latin, neuter plural of carrum, variant of carrus “baggage cart, freight wagon,” from Gaulish; akin to Old Irish carr “wheeled vehicle”
Origin of car2
First recorded in 1375–1425; Middle English ( Scots ), from Scots Gaelic ceàrr “false, left, wrong”
Origin of CAR3
First recorded in 1980–85
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Typically mounted on street poles or atop police cars, plate readers continuously monitor passing vehicles, recording their location at a specific date and time.
From Los Angeles Times
Lines of parked cars stretched out from the parking lot for at least the following three weeks.
A fractious council meeting in December was disrupted by motorists honking their car horns outside, while a man was ejected for barracking councillors with shouts of "shame" after it got under way.
From BBC
I asked Carr if the girls were taught about stranger-danger at school, and how they might have reacted, for example, if they had been approached by a man in a car.
From BBC
As teams start from scratch this year with a new car, engine and active aerodynamics, how will the drivers' and constructors' championships look when the curtain falls in December after 24 races?
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
