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carsick

American  
[kahr-sik] / ˈkɑrˌsɪk /

adjective

  1. ill with carsickness.


carsick British  
/ ˈkɑːˌsɪk /

adjective

  1. nauseated from riding in a car or other vehicle

"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

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of carsick

First recorded in 1905–10; car 1 + sick 1


Explanation

If you get carsick, you feel nauseated when you're in a moving vehicle. Kids who get carsick often feel worse when they try to read in a car. If you get sick to your stomach whenever you ride in a car, you can say you tend to get carsick. This is just one of many kinds of motion sickness — some people feel ill when they're traveling by airplane, on a train, or on a boat. The word seasick came first, in the 16th century, and carsick was modeled after it, appearing around 1908.

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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:

Enrico La Cava, a 35-year-old engineering manager from Paris, always carries bags when traveling because his kids frequently get carsick.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Her gray cloth backseat was covered with dog hair and a few remaining telltale stains of the regurgitated chocolate milk of a carsick toddler.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2024

Drinks remembers his sense of disbelief and being a little carsick as they drove the four hours back to Philadelphia, where he would move in with his brother Damon.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 19, 2023

He also gets carsick during an outdoor excursion with Dean.

From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2022

I sat in the back row, carsick and dizzy, sandwiched between the seven-year-old twins who kept reaching over my lap to slap at each other.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

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