Meaning of clown car | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A circus clown routine in which an implausibly large number of clowns climb into or out of a small car.
2. The undersized car used in a circus clown car routine.
3. A very small car.
   broadly, derogatory, often
4. A car or small enclosed space with too many people or things in it.
   broadly
5. Any process with a comically large number of participants, especially participants who themselves are comical or ridiculous.
   derogatory, figuratively, often
6. A car for clowns, especially the car of a circus train that carries the clowns.
   literally
7. A car that looks gaudy or otherwise ridiculous.
   derogatory

Examples

“Kids of all ages have been applauding the clown car trick for more than 60 years, ever since it was first introduced in 1950 by master clown Otto Griebling at the Cole Brothers Circus.”

“It looked as if around fifty people got out and it reminded me of a clown car at a circus.”

“Sometimes clowns do a trick called “clown car,” where a bunch of clowns squeeze into a car and come out, one by one. […] If you go to a circus with a clown car, you'll see they have suitcases, beach balls, and other items to make it funnier.”

“Tiny chugging clown cars drive into the arena, and clown after clown after clown climbs out, enough to fill a bus.”

“My first experience of clown, like most people, was at the circus. I cried. The clown car exploded and fell apart. I cried.”

“The two-stroke-engine powered, built-with-communist-pride Trabant — a very small, two-door, clown car that resembles a shrunken '55 Chevy — does not particularly excite me.”

“Eleven days later, Madame Chabosson met us at her office parking lot and the five of us squeezed ourselves into her little clown car.”

“A security officer sat in his little clown car about thirty yards away.”

“Huey shut the door and glanced back at his pink compact clown car, still lamenting the loss of his Caddy.”

“He has painted a racing stripe down the side of his three-wheeled Reliant Robin. Even Grandad overtook the clown car the other day, and he wasn't even on his bike.”

“At the grocery store, a clown car as everyone unfolds, gets out, stretches legs and goes inside, stopping a moment in appreciation of air conditioning.”

“I hope you enjoy this endlessly overstuffed clown car of trivia (Ken Jennings's Trivia Clown Car?).”

“So, I watched as the adults (four) and children (seven) indulged in some sort of vehicular limbo dance as bodies swerved, behinds slid over, and the body parts of several children poked through the windows as if seeking escape. After a few minutes of this, a woman emerged and the tiny clown car went on its way.”

“She already had 6 kids. I find it troubling that Nadya views her womb as a clown car.”

“Four people in a bathroom the size of a broom closet is a clown car.”

“Neighbours have criticised the council’s decision to construct a specially-designed house for the family, saying Ms Frost treated her womb like a ‘clown car’.”

“clown-car primaries”

“The personnel moves were startling—some say Machiavellian—and have kept tongues wagging in a city that takes its fractious politics seriously. At The San Francisco Examiner, where street sales rose by as much as 4,000 a day during the frenetic episode, a columnist, Rob Morse, wrote: “The clown car keeps pulling up at City Hall, and more clowns keep piling out.””

“So the best explanation for Romney's tumble was the terrible publicity of the clown car debates, combined with the attack ads launched against him by Newt Gingrich via Sheldon Adelson.”

“Of course, the ideological ascendancy of the right allows conservative commentators to take a derisory approach, labelling all work on the prison-industrial complex as laughable left-wing nonsense peddled by Marxist goofballs and other passengers in the clown car of academic identity politics' (Goldberg 2011).”

“The Republican Party’s clown car has become a clown van. With nearly two dozen possible presidential candidates, the GOP is having a seriousness deficit. There can’t possibly be that many people who are real candidates.”

“The Republican field is a clown car [title]”

“Let’s be clear: while it sounds plausible in this clown car of a White House that Trump is motivated by revenge, I don’t think he’s trying to bring down Sarah Cooper for her eviscerating mimicry of him on TikTok.”

“Colin Jost and Michael Che cover the same ground as the cold open, reporting on Trump’s clown car cabinet picks of Matt Gaetz (“He said the same thing he says when he sees a teenage girl: I’ll do it”), Musk (“You can’t be surprised that the white African guy’s first idea is slavery”), and RFK Jr (“The first brain worm survivor nominated to a cabinet-level position”).”

“Only when Pape Sarr, receiving the ball from the Uruguayan, whipped in a dangerous inswinging cross did the prevailing mood reassert itself, as the ball eventually found its way past a flailing André Onana off Shaw’s arm. Brennan Johnson had applied the pressure to force the mistake, but it was not good goalkeeping and it was not good defending, an absolute clown car of a goal.”

“I lost complete track of Frank Sinatra and while I was hunting for him I saw a fellow with my tramp makeup on, waiting to get into the clown car.”

“Well, you said you wanted to see the rest of the train. You know, the clown car and all.”

“Besides, the Local Brotherhood of Clowns, Mimes and Tumblers would put my ass in a sling if I violated the sanctity of the clown car.”

“Most people would have smiled at the sight of two clowns, in a clown car on their way into town, but not this particular woman.”

“I remember the first time walking towards the circus train, finding the clown car, hopping up on the vestibule, opening the sliding door and settling into my berth on the train.”

“Through our parade fees we have purchased a 1938 LaSalle hearse (which we painted red and yellow) and our own public address system, which is mounted on our clown car (hearse).”

“Their curses could be heard late into the evening, when one by one they would climb into dilapidated clown cars and speed away.”

“This was instrumental in laying the foundation for the "clown pants for cars" look—though I think Pop's ethos leaned a lot more towards the "hippie pants for cars" look. […] A clown car had arrived to take away the drudgery and banality of Middle America elementary school life!”

“With serving trays and mixing bowls and what-not, it would probably end up looking like a clown car.”

CEFR level