jalopy
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of jalopy
An Americanism dating back to 1925–30; origin uncertain
Explanation
A jalopy is an old car that isn't working very well. You'd never call a new, smooth-running car a jalopy. There are a lot of insulting words in English, mostly for people. This insult is for a car: a jalopy is a rundown, beat-up, falling apart car that needs to be replaced. You'll never see a car salesman say "Check out our selection of jalopies!" A jalopy might have been a great car at one point, but it has seen better days.
Vocabulary lists containing jalopy
Automobiles
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The Circuit
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Swing
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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:
You could patch up the car, which could make it an unreliable jalopy that breaks down — leading to you having to pour more money into fixing it.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
LeBron James is now a fancy hood ornament on a broken-down jalopy.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2026
Many of us have experienced the insurance-rate sticker shock of upgrading from a beloved old jalopy to something newer and nicer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
But they’ll get there—in the same way a young car-shopper starts with a beat-up old jalopy, he argued, eventually they’ll walk onto the lot in middle age looking for a pricey new Cadillac.
From Slate ● May 25, 2025
Papa was very proud of his little jalopy.
From "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child" by Francisco Jiménez
If there are racecars, sports cars, and beat-up jalopies alike, are the cars born into their occupation?
From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2026
No one today any longer wishes to hear jokes about nagging mothers-in-law, spendthrift wives or old jalopies, and the men and women who once told them to hardy plaudits are now forgotten.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
Kelce has gone the extra mile, buying a onetime muffler shop to expand Operation Breakthrough’s campus and create the Ignition Lab, in which students convert dilapidated jalopies into lacquered, showroom-ready electric vehicles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2024
Over there was the junkyard where their father fixed up jalopies, and the sheds where the family raised pigs and cows and chickens.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 3, 2023
It had long been known that most accidents occurred with new cars, and that ancient jalopies were relatively safe even in the hands of juvenile delinquents.
From The Machine That Saved The World by Leinster, Murray
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
