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Webster 1913 Edition

Car

Car

,
Noun.
[OF.
car
,
char
, F.
cahr
, fr. L.
carrus
, Wagon: a Celtic word; cf. W.
car
, Armor.
karr
, Ir. & Gael.
carr
. cf.
Chariot
.]
1.
A small vehicle moved on wheels; usually, one having but two wheels and drawn by one horse; a cart.
2.
A vehicle adapted to the rails of a railroad.
[U. S.]
☞ In England a railroad passenger car is called a railway carriage; a freight car a goods wagon; a platform car a goods truck; a baggage car a van. But styles of car introduced into England from America are called cars; as, tram car. Pullman car. See
Train
.
3.
A chariot of war or of triumph; a vehicle of splendor, dignity, or solemnity.
[Poetic]
.
The gilded
car
of day.
Milton.
The towering
car
, the sable steeds.
Tennyson.
4.
(Astron.)
The stars also called Charles’s Wain, the Great Bear, or the Dipper.
The Pleiads, Hyads, and the Northern
Car
.
Dryden.
5.
The cage of a lift or elevator.
6.
The basket, box, or cage suspended from a balloon to contain passengers, ballast, etc.
7.
A floating perforated box for living fish.
[U. S.]
Car coupling
, or
Car coupler
,
a shackle or other device for connecting the cars in a railway train.
[U. S.]
–
Dummy car
(Railroad)
,
a car containing its own steam power or locomotive.
–
Freight car
(Railrood)
,
a car for the transportation of merchandise or other goods.
[U. S.]
–
Hand car
(Railroad)
,
a small car propelled by hand, used by railroad laborers, etc.
[U. S.]
–
Horse car
, or
Street car
,
an omnibus car, draw by horses or other power upon rails laid in the streets.
[U. S.]
–
Palace car
,
Drawing-room car
,
Sleeping car
,
Parlor car
, etc.
(Railroad)
,
cars especially designed and furnished for the comfort of travelers.

Webster 1828 Edition

Car

CAR

, CAER, CHAR, in names of places, is sometimes the Celtic Caer, a town or city, as in Caermarthen.

Definition 2024

Car

Car

See also: Appendix:Variations of "car"

English

Proper noun

Car

  1. The most widespread of the Nicobarese languages spoken in the Nicobar Islands of India (ISO 839-3 code "caq").

Synonyms

  • (language): Car Nicobarese

See also

Anagrams

Zazaki

Proper noun

Car

  1. God

car

car

See also: Appendix:Variations of "car"

English

Etymology 2

From Middle English carre, from Anglo-Norman carre (from Old Northern French, compare Old French char), from Latin carra, neuter plural of carrus ‎(“four-wheeled baggage wagon”), from Gaulish *karros, from Proto-Celtic *karros ‎(“wagon”), from Proto-Indo-European *kr̥sos, zero-grade form of *kers- ‎(“to run”).

Noun

car ‎(plural cars)

  1. (dated) A wheeled vehicle, drawn by a horse or other animal.
  2. A wheeled vehicle that moves independently, with at least three wheels, powered mechanically, steered by a driver and mostly for personal transportation; a motorcar or automobile.
    She drove her car to the mall.
    • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:
      If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the ever more expensive and then universally known killing hazards of gasoline cars: […] .
  3. (rail transport, chiefly Canada, US) An unpowered unit in a railroad train.
    The conductor coupled the cars to the locomotive.
  4. (rail transport) an individual vehicle, powered or unpowered, in a multiple unit.
    The 11:10 to London was operated by a 4-car diesel multiple unit
  5. (rail transport) A passenger-carrying unit in a subway or elevated train, whether powered or not.
    From the front-most car of the subway, he filmed the progress through the tunnel.
  6. A rough unit of quantity approximating the amount which would fill a railroad car.
    We ordered five hundred cars of gypsum.
  7. The moving, load-carrying component of an elevator or other cable-drawn transport mechanism.
    Fix the car of the express elevator - the door is sticking.
  8. The passenger-carrying portion of certain amusement park rides, such as Ferris wheels.
    The most exciting part of riding a Ferris wheel is when your car goes over the top.
  9. The part of an airship, such as a balloon or dirigible, which houses the passengers and control apparatus.
  10. (sailing) A sliding fitting that runs along a track.
    • 1995, Ken Textor, The New Book of Sail Trim, ISBN 0924486813, page 201:
      On boats 25 feet or more, it is best to mount a mast car and track on the front of the mast so you can adjust the height of the pole above the deck
  11. (uncountable, US) The aggregate of desirable characteristics of a car.
    Buy now! You can get more car for your money.
  12. (US) A floating perforated box for living fish.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

See also

Etymology 3

Acronym of contents of the address part of register number. Note that it was based on original hardware and has no meaning today.

Noun

Diagram for the list (42 69 613). The car of the first cons is 42, and the cdr points the next cons.

car ‎(plural cars)

  1. (computing) The first part of a cons in LISP. The first element of a list
    • Matt Kaufmann, Panagiotis Manolios, and J Strother Moore, Computer-aided reasoning: an approach, 2000 :
      The elements of a list are the successive cars along the "cdr chain." That is, the elements are the car, the car of the cdr, the car of the cdr of the cdr, etc.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin cārus.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kaɾ/
  • Rhymes: -aɾ

Adjective

car m ‎(feminine cara, masculine plural cars, feminine plural cares)

  1. expensive
  2. (poetic) dear

Czech

Etymology

From Old Church Slavonic цѣсарь ‎(cěsarĭ), from Ancient Greek Καῖσαρ ‎(Kaîsar), from Latin Caesar.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tsar/
  • Rhymes: -ar

Noun

car m

  1. tsar

Derived terms

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kaʁ/
  • Rhymes: -aʁ

Etymology 1

From Old French quer ‎(“as, since, because, for”), from Latin quārē ‎(“how; why”).

Conjunction

car

  1. as, since, because, for
    J’ai ouvert mon parapluie car il pleuvait. — I opened my umbrella because it was raining.
Synonyms

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English car, itself borrowed from Anglo-Norman and the Old Northern French car, variant of Old French char.

Noun

car m ‎(plural cars)

  1. car
  2. coach
    Les élèves vont à l’école en car.‎ ― The pupils go to school by coach.
Synonyms

Anagrams

Interlingua

Adjective

car ‎(comparative plus car, superlative le plus car)

  1. dear; beloved; cherished
  2. expensive

Lojban

Rafsi

car

  1. rafsi of carna.

Middle French

Conjunction

car

  1. for (because)

Descendants

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin cārus.

Adjective

car m (feminine singular cara, masculine plural cars, feminine plural caras)

  1. dear
  2. expensive

Polish

Etymology

From Old Church Slavonic цѣсарь ‎(cěsarĭ), from Ancient Greek Καῖσαρ ‎(Kaîsar), from Latin Caesar.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tsar/

Noun

car m pers

  1. czar, tsar, tzar (title of the former emperors of Russia)

Declension

Derived terms

Romanian

Etymology 1

From Latin carrus.

Noun

car n ‎(plural care)

  1. cart
  2. chariot
Related terms

Etymology 2

From Latin caries or carius.

Alternative forms

  • cariu (dated)

Noun

car m ‎(plural cari)

  1. death-watch beetle

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

car m ‎(genitive singular cuir, plural caran)

  1. job
  2. twist, turn
  3. trick
  4. bit

Derived terms

Adverb

car

  1. somewhat, quite, rather
    Tha thu car fadalach.‎ ― You're somewhat late.
    Thig an stòiridh gu ceann car obann.‎ ― The story came to an end somewhat abruptly.

Related terms

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *cěsarь, *cьsarь, from Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂 ‎(kaisar), from Latin Caesar.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /tsâr/

Noun

cȁr m ‎(Cyrillic spelling ца̏р)

  1. czar, emperor, monarch

Declension

Derived terms

Slovene

Etymology

From Serbo-Croatian cȁr, from Proto-Slavic *cьsarь, from Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂 ‎(kaisar), from Latin Caesar.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtsàːr/, /ˈtsáːr/
  • Tonal orthography: cár, cȃr

Noun

cár m anim ‎(genitive cárja, nominative plural cárji, feminine caríca or cárinja)

  1. tsar

Declension

See also

Volapük

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [tʃar]

Noun

car ‎(plural cars)

  1. (weapon) bow

Declension

Welsh

Etymology

From Middle Welsh carr, from Proto-Brythonic *karr, from Proto-Celtic *karros.

Noun

car m (plural ceir)

  1. car

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
car gar nghar char
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Etymology

Etymology unclear, but probably from Proto-Germanic *karzijaną ‎(“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *gers- ‎(“to bend, turn”). See also cair ‎(“to turn, go”), char ‎(“a turn; a task (a turn of work); to turn; to cause to turn”), Dutch keren ‎(“to turn, change direction”) and German Kehre ‎(“a turn, change of direction; a U-turn, bend”). Shakespeare had something of a fondness for verbalizing nouns, and sometimes even substantivizing verbs. Howbeit, anything other than a "turn" does not seem to make any sense within the broader context of the cited Sonnet.

  1. (obsolete) A turn
    • Shakespeare
      But when from highmost pitch, with weary car, Like feeble age, / he reeleth from the day. (after the sun reaches the zenith it, with a weary turn, begins to reel ‎(“to roll”) (downwards))

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /kɑː/
  • (US) IPA(key): /kɑɹ/
  • Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)

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