flivvern.
/ˈflɪvə/, U.S. /ˈflɪvər/ slang (originally U.S.).
1. A cheap motor car or aeroplane. Also, ‘a destroyer of 750 tons or less’ ( Funk's Stand. Dict. 1928).
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > powered vehicle > motor car > [noun] > small or cheap
flivver1910
runabout car1912
throwabout1922
knockabout1956
society > travel > air or space travel > a means of conveyance through the air > aeroplane > [noun] > cheap aircraft
runabout1932
flivver1936
1910 W. A. Fraser Red Meekins (1921) 22 You stick to me an' you'll be travellin' 'round the country in a flivver.
1919 F. Hurst Humoresque 296 Was his little Sid fool enough to beat it all the way over here in a flivver for eight bucks the round trip?
1920 Glasgow Herald 21 July 9 May be I will disguise the Shamrock as a ‘flivver’ (as the Ford car is known here).
1924 ‘Digit’ Confessions 20th Cent. Hobo 11 Flivver, Ford automobile.
1924 W. M. Raine Troubled Waters vi. 58 Rowan McCoy drove his new car—it was a flivver, though they did not call it that in those days.
1926 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Apr. 39 Won't it be amusing when we can..step into our little up-shooting flivvers at the back door?
1927 Punch 2 Feb. 135/1 He has successfully fought the villain Trust; his workmen all own ‘flivvers’; there has never been a strike.
1936 Beaver Mar. 9/1 So-called ‘flea’ or ‘flivver’ types [of aeroplanes].
1956 S. Bellow Seize the Day (1957) i. 22 He had driven a painted flivver.
2. A person or thing that has a damaging or deleterious influence; a failure.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > [noun] > a harmful thing or person
appairer1382
malisona1525
deformer1562
annoyer1577
scathe1579
harmer1583
mischief1586
allayer1615
crippler1648
devilifier1793
vitiator1846
deterioratora1856
flivver1915
the world > action or operation > failure or lack of success > [noun] > one who or that which is unsuccessful > one who is a failure
botch1769
non-starter1839
schlemiel1868
also-ran1896
rinky-dink1900
flivver1915
wash-out1918
jabroni1919
bust1922
blowout1925
dropout1930
zilch1933
sad sack1943
loser1955
1915 H. L. Wilson Ruggles of Red Gap (1917) xiii. 230 That Jackson lad has offered me about ten thousand of them vegetable cigarettes, but I'll have to throw him down. He's the human flivver. Put him in a car of dressed beef and he'd freeze it between here and Spokane.
1915 Dial. Notes 4 233 Flivver, a hoax; also, a failure.
Derivatives
ˈflivver v. (intransitive) (a) to fail, to come short of success; (b) to travel in a flivver.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > failure or lack of success > fail or be unsuccessful [verb (intransitive)]
withsitc1330
fail1340
defaulta1382
errc1430
to fall (also go) by the wayside1526
misthrive1567
miss1599
to come bad, or no, speedc1600
shrink1608
abortivea1670
maroon1717
to flash in the pan1792
skunk1831
to go to the dickens1833
to miss fire1838
to fall flat1841
fizzle1847
to lose out1858
to fall down1873
to crap out1891
flivver1912
flop1919
skid1920
to lay an egg1929
to blow out1939
to strike out1946
bomb1963
to come (also have) a buster1968
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > riding in a vehicle > ride in a vehicle [verb (intransitive)] > ride in a wheeled vehicle > in a motor car > in specific type
flivver1912
jeep1942
1912 L. J. Vance Destroying Angel vi. 74 If the production flivvers, I'll need that thirty cents.
1927 Bulletin 11 Apr. 14/1 I was finding the desert a bit flat when you flivvered in.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1910