flivver

[fliv-er]

noun

1. Older Slang.,  an automobile, especially one that is small, inexpensive, and old.

2. Slang.,  something of unsatisfactory quality or inferior grade.

flivver

/ ˈflɪvə /

noun

1. an old, cheap, or battered car

Word History and Origins

Origin of flivver¹

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10; origin uncertain

Word History and Origins

Origin of flivver¹

C20: of unknown origin

Example Sentences

“All was crammed side by side. There were expensive antiques and ancient artifacts — fine clocks, needlepoint samplers — but also what you’d call junk: brass headlamps from an old flivver, for example. “He would move objects from room to room as he worked on the house.

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To be sure, the Flivver failed miserably.

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Henry Ford said the single-seat Flivver would be "the Model T of the air," but after a prototype crashed in 1928, killing the pilot, the industrialist abandoned the idea.

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Even Henry Ford, the inventor of the automobile, spearheaded his own version, the Ford Flivver.

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The change would give a subtle, but distinctly different, cast to a classic score that was influenced by some of the leading composers of its day, and which followed in the footsteps of other works that employed so-called “found” instruments, including Satie’s 1917 ballet “Parade,” which uses a typewriter and gunshots, and Frederick Converse’s 1927 “Flivver Ten Million,” an ode to the Ford automobile, which uses car horns.

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