Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

flivver

American  
[fliv-er] / ˈflɪv ər /

noun

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

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


flivver British  
/ ˈflɪvə /

noun

  1. an old, cheap, or battered car

"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 flivver

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10; origin uncertain

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.

But as it turned out, the Progressive flivver was spared.

From Time Magazine Archive

Most airmen thought that the future lay in liquid-cooled engines, like the Hispano-Suiza, and in flivver planes.

From Time Magazine Archive

When Daddy drove a flivver and raccoon coats were all the rage, West Coast football took a rumble seat to none.

From Time Magazine Archive

Once, as a "reverse Rhodes Scholar at Yale," chubby Geoffrey Crowther toured Georgia with three other collegians in a ramshackle flivver.

From Time Magazine Archive

You’d need a flivver, at least, to live there nowadays.

From Out of the Air by Gillmore, Inez Haynes

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember "flivver" for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com