muscle car

English

Etymology

From muscle +‎ car.

Noun

muscle car (plural muscle cars)

1. Any of a variety of automobiles, especially American coupes from the 1960s and early 1970s, that are modified to look and perform like race cars and equipped with large, powerful V-8 engines that allow for quick acceleration to high speeds; but still designed for travel on regular highways.

   Hypernyms: car, automobile < vehicle

   Coordinate terms: pony car, sportscar, supercar, hot rod

   • 2011, Kat Martin, A Song for My Mother, Vanguard Press, →ISBN, page 200:

     In his senior year, he had run across an old '66 Chevy Super Sport headed for the junkyard, bought it for a song, and overhauled it with his dad's help, turning it into the big red muscle car it was back in its day.

   • 2017, Finbarr O'Reilly, Shooting Ghosts: A U.S. Marine, a Combat Photographer, and Their Journey Back from War, Viking, →ISBN, page 10:

     During high school he'd spent four years working as a breakfast cook and dishwasher in Sal's calzone restaurant, saving up enough money to buy himself a muscle car, a maroon 1973 Mercury Cougar XR-7, which he painted black.

Translations

variety of automobile

• Finnish: muskeliauto (fi)
• German: Muscle-Car n