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plural jalopies
: a dilapidated old vehicle (such as an automobile)
Examples of jalopy in a Sentence
They were shocked when the jalopy sitting in the barn actually started.
his parents gave him an old jalopy for school
Recent Examples on the Web
Golf carts resemble the Joad’s family jalopy in the film classic, The Grapes of Wrath, packed to the hilt with jumbo, floating water mats, some 20 feet in length, colossal floats better suited for the Macy’s Day Parade, and the largest sand robber of them all, the canvas beach cabana.
—Steve Cambria, Hartford Courant, 4 Aug. 2024
Do your annoying neighbors constantly park their old jalopy in front of your home?
—Haadiza Ogwude, The Enquirer, 30 July 2024
Visits by this jalopy to a grandmother carry memories of a seashore where the barbed wire and antitank blocks are just being cleared away, and where rock pools shine to his boy’s eye with secret, depthless life.
—Colin Thubron, The New York Review of Books, 19 Jan. 2023
How can cinema, a rickety old jalopy that started its motor in the early twentieth century, hope to keep pace with that?
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2023
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Word History
Etymology
origin unknown
First Known Use
1928, in the meaning defined above
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Cite this Entry
“Jalopy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jalopy. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.
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