Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Informal An old, dilapidated motor vehicle, especially an automobile.
Wiktionary
- n. An old, dilapidated automobile.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a car that is old and unreliable
Etymologies
- Origin unknown. Is it possible that the non Spanish-speaking New Orleans-based longshoremen, referring to scrapped autos circa 1920 destined for Jalapa, Mexico scrapyards, pronounced the destination on the palettes "jalopies" rather than multiples or possessive of Jalapa? (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“After all, he can't have Jane driving a "jalopy" to worship him on Sundays, now can he?”
“So we drive the car home like Ma and Pa Kettle headin 'for the big city in their jalopy which is skirting all over the road.”
“What kind of jalopy, no-budg version of a scintillating NYC trend was this?”
“Why drive an old, out-dated jalopy when you can grip the road in a super-sleek sports car.”
“There was an older couple that picked me up who had been together since she was sixteen and he was seventeen, and they were driving around in an old jalopy, holding hands.”
“She leaned out of the jalopy, and I hopped into her arms.”
“This jalopy and I got into more trouble than you could shake a stick at!”
“The jalopy made a sharp turn to the left and banked through the clouds.”
“We found ourselves in a new room, where there was something that looked like an old, rickety jalopy.”
“Alastair stepped out of the jalopy, with me in one arm and her history book in the other.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘jalopy’.
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50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
walking, bicycle, bus, train, motorcycle, airplane, car, truck, segway, limousine, roller coaster, wheelbarrow and 130 more...
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Mundane Transformers
Bore that meets the eye.
potamogeton, testator, scrutator, isolator, confiteor, deflator, qwerty, susceptor, champertor, preemptor, disinfector, infractor and 91 more...
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old timey talk
Words or Sayings from the 1920's or whatever that no one really uses anymore (at least in that context).
scram, bearcat, heavens to betsy, dick, double-cross, ducky, gams, goofy, hooch, jalopy, john, joe and 174 more...
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The weird, the wonderful and the plai...
Loved for their ingenuity, an exact description, or simply for the pure joy of it.
acidulous, aprosdoketon, higgledy-piggledy, lexicographical, ninja, audacious, somnabulist, shivaree, amorphous, quidnunc, glib, melancholy and 353 more...
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Origin unknown
bamboozle, ballyhoo, banter, bludgeon, chad, cocktail, culvert, curmugeon, dildo, dude, dweeb, dyke and 51 more...
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Automobiles
ambulance, automobile, beach buggy, cab, car, cement mixer, cherry, coach, compact, convertible, coupe, deuce and 66 more...
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Rexicon
brazen, insipid, cuss, penchant, salacious, titillate, lurid, schlemiel, interlope, masquerade, supercilious, action-taking and 51 more...
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On The Road
It's a book by Jack Kerouac
Vague, jalopy, naïve, emaciated, vindicate, hysterical, Obsequious, Schopenhauer, dichotomy, jargon, phosphorescence, lout and 109 more...
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Scrabble words which start with the l...
juvenile, juvenal, jutty, jute, jut, justness, justly, justle, justify, justice, juster, just and 534 more...
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inquiryqueue's list
words delicious to pronounce
apostrophe, asphodel, anemone, cantaloupe, cantalevered, cardamom, coriander, petrichor, sycamore, luminous, tendril, peculiar and 122 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 491 more...
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Fun Words
Words that are fun to say....
gobbledygook, jings, crivens, hullabaloo, wheech, brouhaha, pizzazz, harum-scarum, namby-pamby, pussyfoot, frippery, pitter-patter and 333 more...
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Wordplayer's Wonderful Words
chaparral, grotesque, knork, newsmonger, thitherwards, fackeltanz, kakistocracy, sforzando, compendium, frump, inquere, phosphene and 100 more...
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Is it morning yet?
coterie, lexeme, counterbalance, forthright, pigtail, ponytail, french-braid, barrette, listless, counsel, sitting duck, dead duck and 268 more...
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To Learn
enervate, redolent, distaff, approbation, arrogate, bonhomie, palliate, calumny, panoply, contumacious, edify, dyspeptic and 188 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for jalopy.
sonofgroucho I agree this is a fabulous word. Mar 9, 2009
whichbe This word makes me giggle--just the sequence of sounds. It seems like it should be a blobby type of jelly. Nov 12, 2008
bilby Not used in Australia though it's a grand word. Oct 8, 2008