jalopy

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
18
Words With Friends
21
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/d͡ʒəˈlɒ.pi/

Definition of jalopy

1 sense · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (US, dated)An old, dilapidated or unpretentious automobile.
    “Dean is the perfect guy for the road because he was actually born on the road, when his parents were passing through Salt Lake City in 1926, in a jalopy, on their way to Los Angeles.”
    “"We ran into some real excitement," Frank said, and told his father the whole story of Chet's missing jalopy, the wrecked car which they suspected had been a stolen one also, and the attempted holdup at the ferryboat office.”
    “There's only a rough track and I doubt if that jalopy of yours will make it.”
    “Through most of those early years of restless travel, he dragged his two children and his long-suffering wife, Maryann[…] behind him like tin cans tied to the bumper of a jalopy that no car dealer in his right mind would take in trade.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Unknown. Perhaps from Jalapa, Mexico (now Xalapa), to whose scrapyards used cars were often sent from New Orleans starting in the 1920s. First recorded written use in 1924.

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