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Synonyms

carhop

American  
[kahr-hop] / ˈkɑrˌhɒp /

noun

  1. a person who serves customers in their cars. at a drive-in restaurant.


verb (used without object)

carhopped, carhopping
  1. to work as a carhop.

carhop British  
/ ˈkɑːˌhɒp /

noun

  1. informal a waiter or waitress at a drive-in restaurant

"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 carhop

First recorded in 1935–40; car 1 + (bell)hop

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.

See Examples For:

After class, she would take everyone home before heading to her second job as a carhop at Sonic.

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 27, 2025

Richard and Pamela met when they were teenagers, and she was a carhop at a root beer stand.

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 26, 2020

Three years ago, he was a carhop at a Sonic Drive-In in Garland, Tex.

From New York Times Jan. 29, 2018

For much of her life, she subsisted at the margins of society, making ends meet, according to various accounts, as a bartender, a maid, a roller-skating carhop and a house painter.

From Washington Post Feb. 18, 2017

My high school friends would still have been whining over boyfriends and fighting for carhop jobs at the A&W. Their idea of a dog-eat-dog world was Beauty School.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

Guests can charge their Teslas while getting ‘epic bacon’ and tuna melts carhopped to their vehicles, and other unique quirks we learned at the opening of Elon Musk’s new Tesla Diner in Hollywood.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 18, 2025

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