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trolley car

noun
  1. a streetcar propelled electrically by current taken by means of a trolley from a conducting wire strung overhead or running beneath a slot between the tracks.
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Origin of trolley car

First recorded in 1885–90
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for trolley car

Historical Examples

  • The trolley-car that met his train was rusty, paintless, forlorn, untenanted.

    In a Little Town

    Rupert Hughes

  • There were no passers at the moment, not even a trolley-car.

  • Then they heard the trolley-car's flat wheels grinding on a curve.

    The Trail of the Hawk

    Sinclair Lewis

  • Why, many of you would not need to take a steam-train or even a trolley-car.

    Bird Stories

    Edith M. Patch

  • "At a class reunion I once chased a trolley-car on a dromedary," he said hopefully.

    Wanted: A Husband

    Samuel Hopkins Adams

British Dictionary definitions for trolley car

trolley car

noun
  1. US and Canadian another word for streetcar
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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