Jalopy

//d͡ʒəˈlɒ.pi// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An old, dilapidated or unpretentious automobile. US, dated

    "Dean is the perfect guy for the road because he was actually born on the road, when his parents were passing through Salt Lake City in 1926, in a jalopy, on their way to Los Angeles."

  2. 2
    a car that is old and unreliable wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
busautoautocarautomobilebangerbanger

Example

More examples

"Tom drove to the dance in his father's jalopy."

Etymology

Unknown. Perhaps from Jalapa, Mexico (now Xalapa), to whose scrapyards used cars were often sent from New Orleans starting in the 1920s. First recorded written use in 1924.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.