car carrier
- noun
:
buque transportador de coches
- Environmental regulations for car carriers are becoming more stringent each year.
Examples
-
The car carrier arrived at the port, loaded with thousands of new vehicles from overseas.
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A massive car carrier blocked the view as it docked early this morning.
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The car carrier arrived at the port yesterday.
-
Many car carriers are used to transport vehicles across the ocean.
-
The car carrier arrived at the port fully loaded with new vehicles ready for delivery.
-
The car rental company hired a car carrier to transport their fleet across the country.
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After the storm, the car carrier was inspected for damages before unloading its shipment of cars.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A large boat that carries people or goods across the sea
83
4.0
A large ship that carries goods between ports for sale
26
3.0
A large ship that carries goods between ports
7
3.4
A ship that carries goods to sell
6
3.5
A large ship that carries many shipping containers
4
3.4
A ship that carries goods, often in containers
1
4.4
A large ship that carries many shipping containers
1
3.9
A large ship that carries many shipping containers across the sea
A large ship that carries goods on regular routes at set times
How Big
1
2.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: a 'carrier' is something that carries, and prefacing it with 'car' specifies what is carried, so a B1 learner who knows 'car' and 'carrier' can infer it denotes a vehicle or ship that transports cars. This noun–noun compound follows a common and cross‑linguistically transparent pattern, making the sense predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The name car carrier for a ship comes from the picture of a big boat with many decks full of cars, like a floating parking garage. So it means 'a cargo ship that transports many cars'.