bubble car

American

noun

a two-seat, three-wheeled vehicle with a transparent bubbletop.

bubble car British

noun

(in Britain, formerly) a small car, often having three wheels, with a transparent bubble-shaped top

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of bubble car

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Each bubble car has a receiver to chat with other sky drivers.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

Isetta bubble car, this time with four wheels, not three.

From Reuters • Dec. 20, 2022

That’s why its prototype is like the little white bubble car that could.

From The Verge • Oct. 25, 2016

It looks like a little bubble car from the future, streamlined to run by itself — a big change from the boxy Lexus SUV Google has been retrofitting the last few years with self-driving technology.

From New York Times • May 27, 2014

"It's lively, it's bouncy, it has surprising zip and pep," Kershaw said as he drove a bubble car.

From The Guardian • Oct. 11, 2012

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023