tow truck

American  

noun

• tow trucks
  plural

1. wrecker.

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tow truck British  

noun

1. Also called: breakdown van.   wrecker.  a motor vehicle equipped for towing away wrecked or disabled cars

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tow trucks
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tow truck

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tow truck

“I wondered what that meant — I thought it was some code,” the 33-year-old tow truck driver told me over a Zoom call this week.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

The roadside-assistance company Ortego works for pays for gas on the tow truck he was driving Thursday, which now takes $110 to fill up instead of the $70 it cost last month.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026

Then all that’s left is the long, sad ride in the cab of a tow truck.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026

San Bernardino resident April Zavala said her car was stolen around midnight one night in March by a white tow truck.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2026

Turned out the tow truck guy was right and my parents’ car was going to cost them a supermassive amount of money.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas