streetcar

[ street-kahr ]

noun

1. a public vehicle running regularly along certain streets, usually on rails, as a trolley car or trolley bus.

streetcar

/ ˈstriːtˌkɑː /

noun

1. an electrically driven public transport vehicle that runs on rails let into the surface of the road, power usually being taken from an overhead wire Also calledtrolley caresp Brittramtramcar

Word History and Origins

Origin of streetcar¹

An Americanism dating back to 1860–65; street + car ¹

Example Sentences

The late 19th and early 20th centuries was actually the age of streetcars.

From Nautilus

If it safe for people to ride on our buses, and it is safe for people to ride on our streetcar.

From Washington Post

Those early streetcar systems “drew together the scattered settlements of the time, bringing them all into cityness.”

From MIT Technology Review

Houses, streetcar lines, railroad tracks, telegraph and telephone lines, bridges and highways were washed out.

From Voice of San Diego

The restaurant’s name acknowledges the historic building’s past as a bank, the city’s past as a streetcar stop and the flowering herb native to Washington state, home to Mount Rainier.

From Washington Post

Plays like A Streetcar Named Desire and Summer and Smoke dramatized his divided soul.

From The Daily Beast

“Yeah, me and Streetcar had a lot of fun with that book,” Suffridge was saying.

From The Daily Beast

The po-boy traces its roots back to the New Orleans streetcar labor union strike in 1929.

From The Daily Beast

In Sweden it includes a year of mandated maternity leave and a well-run streetcar system.

From The Daily Beast

From ‘Streetcar’ to Kim Cattrall, Janice Kaplan surveys the shows and actors the Tony Award nominations overlooked.

From The Daily Beast

The streets of these towns were crowded with traffic and streetcar lines are numerous.

From Project Gutenberg

Do you remember a little incident which occurred in a streetcar some six weeks ago?

From Project Gutenberg

Probably no one else on the streetcar beside myself noticed there wasn't a single passenger car, truck or bus that passed us.

From Project Gutenberg

Sometimes we would break away and take a streetcar, till an order was issued forbidding our doing it.

From Project Gutenberg

He walked rapidly to the streetcar and took a seat, with a thoughtful expression on his countenance.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• trolley