Vehicles

See Also: ROAD SCENES

1. Beechcraft Twin [airplane] … its wings flapping hectically like a fat squawking goose unable to get itself aloft —Herbert Lieberman
2. Brakes squawk like Donald Duck —Joyce Cary
3. The bus rode on the highway, like a ship upon the sea, rising and falling on hills that were like waves —Nathan Asch
4. Buzz of traffic … like the hum of bees working a field of newly blossomed clover —James Crumley
5. Car accelerated silently like a lioness which has sighted the prey —Elizabeth Spencer
6. A car is just like a gun. In the wrong hands it is nothing less than an instrument of death —Charles Portis
7. Car … ran as if lubricated with peanut butter —Peter De Vries
8. Cars shot by like large bees —Cynthia Ozick
9. Cars … their taillights like cigarette embers —Daphne Merkin
10. The cloud of exhaust [from car] rose like a sail behind them —Alice Mc Dermott
11. The engines [of a Mercedes] ticking like wizard-made toy millipedes —Saul Bellow
12. The exhaust [of car] bloomed in the air like a bizarre, blue-white flower —William Dieter
13. Felt about cars the way Casanova felt about women —Mike Fredman
14. Guzzles gas the way computers gobble up bytes —Anon
15. Headlights [of cars on highway] flash by like a procession of candles —Stuart Dybek
16. Like a wasp rising from a rose, a helicopter chut-chut-chutted toward them —Will Weaver
17. The limousine slid to the curb and nestled there, sleek as a wet otter stretched out in the noonday sun —Paige Mitchell
18. The … limousine slid up to the curb, like a great, rolling onyx —Hortense Calisher
19. The motor [of car engine] sounded like a polishing drum with a dozen new agates turning inside —Will Weaver
20. Parked cars … stretched like a file of shiny beetles —Donald MacKenzie
21. Planes humming across the sky like bees —H. E. Bates
22. [A car] polished until light glanced off it like a knife —Jayne Anne Phillips
23. The power of the big tractor drew the plow through the damp earth like a potter’s knife through wet clay —Will Weaver
24. A Rolls Royce glittering like a silver tureen —Saul Bellow
25. The rumbles of the big diesel engine were like ocean surf —Will Weaver
26. A ship … its masts jabbing the sky like upended toothpicks —Francis King
27. (The bus) spews out fumes black and substantial as octopus oil —W. P. Kinsella
28. Square black automobiles … like glossy black beetles —Robert Silverberg
29. Taillights [of car] gleaming like malevolent eyes —Stanley Elkin
30. Taillights red as smudged roses —Richard Ford
31. Tires humming like inflated snakes —John Hawkes
32. Tractors [at night] … like neon tetras drifting in the dark tank of the fields —Will Weaver
33. Train … wriggling like some long snake —Natsume Soseki
34. The windshield wipers [of the car] kicked like a weary dance team —Elizabeth Spencer

Black Maria A van for conveying prisoners. This U.S. colloquial term reputedly derives from a Black woman named Maria Lee who ran a lodging house for sailors in Boston. Apparently she was a prodigious woman whom the police called on when they needed extra strength to handle rambunctious prisoners. Eventually her name became associated with the van which rounded up prisoners and carried them to jail or court.

bone-shaker A facetious name for early model bicycles; later applied to similarly unsteady automobiles such as the early model Fords. Since the first bicycles lacked rubber tires and other modern cushioning conveniences and few roads were paved, their ride was something less than smooth and comfortable. The term was in use as early as 1874.

bucket of bolts An irreverent American slang term for an old run-down car that rattles and shakes noisily when moving, producing a sound similar to the rattling of a bucketful of bolts or screws.

meat wagon An ambulance. This slang expression alludes to the damaged human flesh transported to hospitals in these emergency vehicles.

This expression often includes both paddy wagons and hearses.

paddy wagon A patrol wagon; an enclosed truck or van used by the police to transport prisoners; a Black Maria. Paddy, a corruption of the common Irish name Patrick, was once used as a nickname for anyone of Irish descent. Since many police officers in major cities at the turn of the century were Irish, their patrol wagons came to be known as paddy wagons by association. Although the ethnic implications were gradually lost after the 1920s, the expression has remained in widespread use.

panda car A police car. This British colloquialism undoubtedly alludes to the appearance of English police cars: small, white vehicles with a broad horizontal blue stripe along the middle.

rattletrap A rickety old car that rattles and clatters and shakes while in motion; a dangerously dilapidated vehicle.