scout car

American  

noun

1. a fast, lightly-armored military vehicle equipped with guns and used chiefly for reconnaissance.

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scout car British  

noun

1. a fast lightly armoured vehicle used for reconnaissance

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Etymology

Origin of scout car

An Americanism dating back to 1940–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scout car

Then came word that a scout car had been seen at the Home Depot in Carson.

From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2025

Panorama claimed that intelligence officers had tracked the movements of the bombers' car and a scout car on their way to Omagh.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 16, 2010

One day this month, on his sixth visit to Indochina, Dudman left Saigon in a turquoise scout car for a firsthand look at developments across the Cambodian border in Svay Rieng province and perhaps Phnom-Penh.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then an armored scout car, with a British bridge-building detachment, hit another mine, bounced up & turned over.

From Time Magazine Archive

He heard the muffled sounds of hobnailed boots marching along in the street outside, and the clanking sound of tank and scout car tractor treads on the stones.

From Dave Dawson at Dunkirk by Bowen, Robert Sydney