vehicle
/ˈviːɪk(ə)l
/noun
1A thing used for transporting people or goods, especially on land, such as a car, lorry, or cart: the vehicle was sent skidding across the road a heavy goods vehicle...
- One part of the terminal is onshore, and land transport vehicles will be unloaded there.
- Possible modes of transport include ambulances, local transport vehicles, military vehicles, helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, and rescue boats.
- Many buses and large transport vehicles were sent to evacuate the community.
Synonyms
automobile, motor vehicle, motorized vehicle, means of transport, conveyance, machine
informal wheels, heap, crate, jalopy
North American informal auto
US informal hooptie
2A thing used to express, embody, or fulfil something: I use paint as a vehicle for my ideas...
- Part of the reason for this is that the federal government's power to accede to international treaties has on occasion been a vehicle for increasing federal power.
- And without a doubt, the GOP has merely become a vehicle for unbridled corporate power.
- And yet none of the current candidates has been capable of becoming the vehicle for those forces.
Synonyms
channel, medium, means, means of expression, agency, agent, instrument, mechanism, organ, apparatus, structure, machine, machinery;
force, catalyst;
route, avenue, course, technique, method, approach
2.1A substance that facilitates the use of a drug, pigment, or other material mixed with it: casein was used as a vehicle for pigments by the medieval painters...
- The pigments, applied with water as a vehicle, are bound by the carbonation of the slaked lime in the fresh plaster.
- The pill is unfortunately too expensive to serve as a food preserver, but researchers are already working on a cheaper nitric oxide vehicle.
- On the other hand, aerosolized particles that circumvent the blood-brain barrier might someday serve as delivery vehicles for drugs.
3A film, television programme, song, etc. that is intended to display the leading performer to the best advantage: a vehicle for a star who was one of Hollywood’s hottest properties...
- Where these films went wrong and the original Carry On films went right, is that most of the modern crop of British comedy films are star vehicles as opposed to ensemble pieces.
- It might have been, so rumour had it, a film vehicle for those Latino leading ladies Madonna and Jennifer Lopez.
- The songs are vehicles for James' expressiveness and storytelling.
4A privately controlled company through which an individual or organization conducts a particular kind of business, especially investment.Most companies offer investment vehicles, such as mutual funds, that are already managed by experienced and qualified money managers....
- Residential property has been, for many decades in Ireland, the investment vehicle of choice for private investors.
- Malone confirmed that an investment vehicle representing a group of private individuals was the new shareholder in the company.
Origin
Early 17th century: from French véhicule or Latin vehiculum, from vehere 'carry'.
Vehicle is from Latin vehiculum, from vehere ‘carry’.