carburetor

American  

[kahr-buh-ray-ter, -byuh-] / ˈkɑr bəˌreɪ tər, -bjə- /

especially British, carburator,

noun

• carburetors
  plural

1. a device for mixing vaporized fuel with air to produce a combustible or explosive mixture, as for an internal-combustion engine.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• carburetors
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of carburetor

First recorded in 1860–65; carburet + -or ²

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Explanation

A carburetor is the part of a car's engine that combines gas vapors and air in a way that keeps things running. Many vehicles, including some small airplanes, have carburetors. Newer cars, which tend to have fuel injected engines, no longer have carburetors, but there are still plenty of cars and trucks on the road that do. An engine with a carburetor is called an internal combustion engine, and it relies on the carburetor to mix fuel and air in the right proportion. The word itself comes from the now-obsolete carburet, "combine or charge with a hydrocarbon."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

carburetor carburetors

Older data centers did rely heavily on evaporative cooling, much like an outdated car relied on a carburetor.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026

One memory stood out among the others: Watching Dale Earnhardt tinker with his carburetor under the hood of his car.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 17, 2023

In high school, she shelved books at the local library and read incessantly: not only Chinua Achebe and Toni Morrison but also thrillers, histories, how-to books about fixing a carburetor.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2023

While he was flying his Farman, the line feeding fuel to the carburetor broke.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 31, 2022

He opened the carburetor to see that gas came through.

From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck

Brian Hohmann has spent decades adapting to changes in automotive technology, from attending a school to fix carburetors — now an obsolete technology — to learning how to program.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2022

He furthered his automotive education, as he rebuilt carburetors, performed tuneups and ran a dynamometer that measured the rear-wheel horsepower of customers’ cars.

From New York Times ● Feb. 10, 2022

He lifted engines and carburetors in the garage where he worked on cars, but in this moment, he couldn’t pull himself up from the ground.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 7, 2021

"From greasy carburetors to plants in the same space," Resnick observes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2018

He often prowled through junkyards touching old cars and buying old alternators and carburetors just for the joy of cleaning them up and making them work again.

From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech

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