motor hotel
- noun
- /ˈmoʊtər hoʊˈtɛl/
- US
- We decided to stay at a motor hotel so we could park right outside our room.
Examples
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The motor hotel offered convenient access to the highway for travelers.
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Many motor hotels offer amenities like free Wi-Fi.
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Many classic American road trips feature nights spent in a motor hotel along the route.
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The motor hotel was conveniently located off the highway.
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We stayed at a charming motor hotel where we could park right outside our room.
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The motor hotel offered convenient access to the highway for travelers.
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During our road trip, we chose to rest at a basic motor hotel that catered specifically to drivers.
Synonyms
A small hotel by the road that has parking outside each room
A small hotel where rooms open onto a parking area
A small hotel by a road with parking spaces in front of rooms
A hotel with parking next to each room for drivers
A small roadside hotel or group of cabins where you can park near your room
How Convenient
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally a hotel for motorists — its meaning (a hotel serving drivers with parking-access rooms) follows directly from 'motor' (in the vehicular/engine sense) + 'hotel' and mirrors cross-linguistic formations (e.g., 'motel'), so learners who know 'motor' in the vehicle/engine sense will readily infer it. However, the provided constituent definition for 'motor' (relating to nerves/muscles) is a different sense and could confuse learners who only know that technical meaning.
Etymology
The compound motor hotel comes from the early days of car travel and joins motor meaning cars and hotel meaning a place to stay. Drivers could park right by their room, so the name came to mean 'a hotel designed for motorists'.