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Glite Dictionary
scout car

scout car

6.8
A fast, lightly armored four-wheel-drive military vehicle with an open top used to find where the enemy is
  • noun
  • /skaʊt kɑr/
  • Specialized
translation icon : vehículo de reconocimiento

Examples

  • One Lieutenant and one scout car.

    Lion Of The Desert (1981)

  • Rode the scout car with a Tommy gun in my lap.

    The Big Sleep (1946)

  • The soldiers used a scout car to quickly gather intelligence on enemy positions.

  • During the military exercise, the scout car maneuvered through rough terrain to scout ahead.

  • The scout car was essential for reconnaissance missions due to its speed and agility.

Synonyms

armored car
vsscout car
  • US
2 5.5

A military vehicle on wheels with light armor and a machine gun for combat

is focused on scouting and observation rather than combat or heavy armament
reconnaissance vehicle
vsscout car
  • Specialized
8.0

A fast vehicle with light armour that scouts and watches ahead

is defined by specific features like four wheel drive and open top

How Armored

tank
748 2.8
armored personnel carrier
  • Specialized
14 5.3
armored car
  • US
34 3.5
scout car
  • Specialized
6.8
jeep
200 1.3

Surface Forms

scout car singular
scout cars plural

Morphology

scout + car

The compound 'scout car' is directly compositional: 'scout' (someone who surveys) + 'car' (a vehicle) yields a vehicle used for scouting/reconnaissance. While the term has a specific military nuance (light armor, reconnaissance role), that specialized sense is predictable from the constituents and cross-linguistically comparable, so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer the meaning.

Etymology

Scout car comes from the idea of sending a small, fast car ahead to scout, meaning 'to look and report'. Because these vehicles were light and quick, they could move forward to find the enemy, so today scout car means a lightly armored vehicle used to check ahead.