streetcarn.
/ˈstriːtkɑː/, U.S. /ˈstritˌkɑr/ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > cart, carriage, or wagon > cart or wagon for conveying goods > [noun] > types of > cart (usually two-wheeled) > other types
streetcar1671
hutch1742
box cart1794
Scotch cart1807
Red River cart1857
wheel car1931
1671 in J. Stow Surv. London (1720) II. App. viii. 46/2 No Street-Car, or Brewers Dray.
1694 Act Common Council 26 Oct. Guildhall Rec.: PAR 8.19 3 The Raves thereof shall be higher than the Raves of the Street Cars or Carts, to keep the Fuel the safer from falling off.
1723 in Tremaine's Placita Coronæ 390 All the Street-Cars, or Residue of the said 420 Cars, to be licensed..for the Carriage of all Wood, Coals, and other Fuel withing the same City.
2. Chiefly North American. A passenger vehicle, now typically powered by electricity conveyed by overhead power lines, running on rails set in a public road; a tram.In early use: a horse-drawn passenger vehicle.
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society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > public service vehicle > [noun] > tramcar
streetcar1832
road car1834
tram-carriage1868
tramway car1872
tram-car1873
surface car1879
tram1879
car1890
railbus1932
1832 J. Pollock in Reg. Arts & Jrnl. Patent Inventions 279 This car I denominate the self-adjusting rail-road and street car, as it is designed to adjust itself to all the ordinary purposes of transportation.
1839 W. Chambers Let. 19 Aug. in Museum of Foreign Lit. 9 200/2 Those funny fellows who drive the street-cars [in Dublin] are likewise more decent in their apparel—the straw rope having disappeared from the hat or legs.
1862 A. Trollope N. Amer. I. 185 Omnibuses, or street cars working on rails run hither and thither.
1886 F. R. Stockton Late Mrs Null xxxii. 437 She..took a street car for the train that would carry her home.
1887 Grip (Toronto) 5 Feb. 6/2 Toronto law is plain and hard—no streetcars out on Sunday.
1929 M. de la Roche Whiteoaks iv. 58 They boarded a street car and stood together, swaying, hanging by the straps,..oblivious of the other passengers.
1967 S. Terkel Division Street i. 21 Streetcars were easy for people to manage... You knew they were gonna stop at a corner or you knew where they ran.
1978 Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. (Record) 9/4 The Warsaw street cars stop sixty or seventy meters from the gates of the ghetto.
2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Nexis) 30 Oct. b1 The electrically powered streetcars will rely on backup batteries during a power failure.
3. U.S. Military slang. A shell. Cf. tram-car n. Additions. Now rare.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > ammunition for firearms > [noun] > bullet or shell > shell
cartouche1611
shell1651
bomb1684
bombshell1708
artillery shell1856
plonker1917
streetcar1920
1918 Delta Mag. (Sigma Nu) Dec. 193/2 A ‘heavenly’ street car... The Austrian ‘whiz-bam’—so nicknamed by the soldiers—has the sound almost of a street car running through the heavens.]
1920 C. R. Herr Company F Hist.: 319th Infantry 22 The air was filled with the sounds of the shells as they lazily went on their way towards the back lines of both sides. ‘Street cars’—‘Petersburg Locals’ the boys called them.
1950 R. Chandler Let. 18 May (1966) 78 Doesn't he [sc. Partridge] overlook some of the most commonly used words of soldier-slang? E.g...‘street cars’ or ‘tram cars’ for heavy long range shells.
Compounds
General attributive, as streetcar line, streetcar ticket, etc.
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1862 Janesville (Wisconsin) Daily Gaz. 15 Dec. A stranger who recently landed in Chicago, soon got his pockets full of their..representatives of money... Street car tickets, omnibus tickets, board of trade tickets, [etc.].
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. III. 1858/1 Dean and Coleman's street-car rail.
1888 J. Pennell & E. R. Pennell Sent. Journey 20 Here we turned from river and street-car track to walk to the other end of the town.
1904 Collier's 7 May 20/3 (advt.) Send 25c for our World's Fair Guide, of 20,000 rooms, map of city, street car lines.
1948 A. C. Kinsey et al. Sexual Behavior Human Male iii. 78 Persons employed by the hour..for tasks involving some minimum of training: e.g...street car conductors, taxi drivers, [etc.].
1987 F. Flagg Fried Green Tomatoes 38 The store is located in downtown Birmingham, right at the streetcar stop, across from Gus's Hot Dogs.
2003 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 10 July w1/5 Officials from Frankfurt's public transportation authority..will try to entice investors to lease their subway and streetcar network.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1671