Dictionary

flivver en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈflɪv.ə(ɹ)/ (UK)
• /ˈflɪv.ɚ/ (General-American)

Etymology

Unknown, early 20th c.. A book titled "At the Front in a Flivver" was published in 1917. Cartoonist Tad Dorgan in 1919 claimed to have created the term in his comic strip Judge Rummy.

Meanings

1. (Canada, US, colloquial, dated) An automobile or cart, particularly one which is old and inexpensive.
   • These workers were often joined by impoverished small farmers from Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri who pooled their resources to buy a flivver and follow the harvest into the Dakotas and Canada. 1998, Nigel Anthony Sellars, Oil, Wheat & Wobblies: The Industrial Workers of the World in Oklahoma, 1905-1930, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 180:
   • Shortly after daylight a procession of mule-drawn waggons, broken-down flivvers, and buggies begins wheeling in from the countryside ... 1948, Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Part One, 1:
   • Billy being too poor to own a car, had hired a cheap flivver for the day, and was purposely ten minutes behind the time, but to his disgust found the procession not yet started. 1920 July, Lyman Seelye, “Quite a Picnic”, in The Overland Monthly:
2. (Canada, US, colloquial, dated, qualifier:originally) An automobile or cart, particularly one which is old and inexpensive. ▸ A Ford Model T.
3. (US, derogatory, historical, slang) A destroyer of the United States Navy with a displacement of less than 1,000 tons.

Forms

Synonyms

hooptie · rustbucket · old banger · crate · shitbucket · hooptie · beater · rattletrap · tin Lizzie · shed · rattletrap · crock · wreck · banger · junker · banger · gas guzzler · wreck · tin Lizzie · bucket of rust · beater · crate · lemon · jalopy · junker · clunker · shed · flivver · tin Lizzie · shitcan · flivver · shitpot · shitcan · shitbucket · shitpot · bucket of rust · jalopy · jalopy · gas guzzler · tin Lizzie · old banger · crock · bucket of bolts · rustbucket · shitbox · shitbox · lemon · jalopy · bucket of bolts · clunker

wikipedia: Judge Rummy · wikipedia: The Sun (New York City) · wikipedia: Tad Dorgan