Automobiles & Transportation Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Citations in the Category Automobiles & Transportation

Automotive, automobiles, cars, racing, motorcycles, trains, railways, bicycles, wheels, rails, tires, air travel, bikes, etc. See also the Aviation category. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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tro-tro n. Each tro-tro runs along specified routes with destinations yelled to potential passengers out the window by the driver’s assistant (or “mate”) and—in the case of loud street noise—the holler is accompanied by a quick hand signal. [Ghana Automobiles & Transportation] [full cite] (Sep. 22, 2005)

troquero n. Unlike the common vision of a trucker, an old white man wearing a cowboy hat drinking a big gulp full of coffee, most truckers in LA are Latino, some are women, and most speak Spanish. They call themselves troqueros.…Troqueros, or owner operators as the trucking companies call them, are denied benefits given to most employees because the companies contend that they are independent contractors and thus not entitled to collective bargaining rights. [English-derived Spanish Automobiles & Transportation] [full cite] (Apr. 19, 2006)

trucker bomb n. Last year, one highway cleaning crew with the Department of Ecology found 2,600 bottles filled with urine and 18 dirty needles. The so-called “trucker bombs” are on the increase as more truck drivers choose to relieve themselves without stopping at rest areas. [ Language English Subject Automobiles & Transportation] [full cite] (Oct. 5, 2005)

trucker bomb n. Road crews call the bottles “trucker bombs”—trucker since that’s the group most often blamed for dumping them and bomb because they explode when a mower hits them, often sending a putrid shower of warm urine into the air and onto whoever is cutting the grass. [ Language English Subject Automobiles & Transportation] [full cite] (Oct. 5, 2005)

truing n. A wheel, he explained, can develop flat spots, and the barn’s special “truing” machine can restore the wheel to working order. A big plastic tub with piles of metal shavings carries the sign “Wheel Truing Machine Chips Only.” The chips look like cheese shavings, though cheese shavings with the density of bullets. [English Automobiles & Transportation Jargon] [full cite] (May. 21, 2007)

trunk monkey n. A “Mad Max” array of mostly white, mostly Western security contractors pulled up to the airport in waves of armored SUVs, some with sirens wailing. Their gunners squatted in the open backs. Sunglasses blanked out their expressions. They were the “trunk monkeys”—security contractor parlance for the gunmen who ride in the back of convoys, aiming their weapons at the Iraqi civilians on the road. [English Automobiles & Transportation Military Slang] [full cite] (Dec. 28, 2007)

trunking n. Trunking, as it is known, is already an infraction. Unfortunately, this is becoming a very common practice as teenagers are attempting to get around provisional driver’s license restrictions that limit their ability to drive with friends in the car. So instead, they hide their friends from the police by putting them in the trunk. [English Automobiles & Transportation] [full cite] (Mar. 1, 2006)

trunking n. One of the more conservative members of the Assembly, Dennis Mountjoy (R-Monrovia), has sponsored a bill to stop people, particularly teenagers, from driving with someone in the trunk. Mountjoy says the practice, known as “trunking,” is employed by teenagers trying to get around a law prohibiting novice drivers from carrying teenage passengers without an adult in the car. The state police say nine people have died and 140 have been injured since 2000. [English Automobiles & Transportation] [full cite] (Aug. 27, 2006)

tub n. Tagliani wasn’t hurt in the wreck, which happened in the warm-up for yesterday’s Molson Grand Prix of Toronto.…His team’s spare car—a “tub” as it’s known in the parlance—amounted to an empty shell. It was lacking vital components such as a brake pedal and seatbelts and, um, an engine. [English Automobiles & Transportation Jargon] [full cite] (Jul. 12, 2006)

tubby n. Race on Tubular tires, also known as “sew-ups”—When I was a young buck in college I actually got into a bit of serious cycling and raced for a while. It wasn’t long before I realized that all of the fast guys rode on Tubular tires. Tubbies as I like to call them differ from clinchers in that they don’t have beads. Instead, the two edges of the tire are sewn together around the inner tube. Tubulars are used on special rims, and are held on to the rims by glue. Tubulars used to be fairly common on high-performance bicycles, but these days they are an endangered species on most bikes. [English Automobiles & Transportation Sports & Recreation] [full cite] (Jul. 6, 2007)

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