Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🚙 A small vehicle 🚗 An old car
runabout

runabout

63 4.1
A small car or boat used for short trips
  • noun
  • /ˈrʌnəˌbaʊt/
translation icon : coche pequeño
  • The family used their new runabout for weekend outings to the beach.
  • little runabout
  • get the runabout
  • take a runabout

Examples

  • Going back to the gig was pointless; the little low-g runabout could not take them far enough.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • If you needed a runabout for light hauling, this would be a pretty cool, unique, oversteering bit of fun.

    Blog text (18)

  • "Runabout".

    Eva (2010)

  • A whine announced Ian's return in the runabout.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Their battery-powered three-passenger runabout.

    The Nice Guys (2016)

  • We took the little runabout down to the lake for a picnic.

  • He bought a small runabout to run errands around town.

Synonyms

boat
vsrunabout
∞ 1.0

A small vehicle used on water to carry people, like a rowboat or motorboat

focuses on short trips or errands and includes land vehicles too
small boat
vsrunabout
13 1.0

A boat that is small and used for short trips on lakes or rivers

covers short errands by land or water rather than only inshore trips

How Small

moped
18 3.2
bicycle
280 1.0
runabout
63 4.1
car
∞ 1.0
van
676 1.0

Surface Forms

runabout singular
runabouts plural

Morphology

runabout = run (semi-transparent) = about + run

The term can be understood as 'for running about' (doing short trips or errands), but the specific interpretation as a small car or boat is a conventionalized noun sense. [Postprocessing: moved 'about' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Runabout is made of run + about, meaning 'move around' or 'go here and there', so a small car or boat kept for short trips or errands is called a runabout because it is for 'running about' quickly.