Klunker

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old, broken-down car or truck that is barely functional ; something that produces a loud, heavy, metallic sound
2. A dilapidated automobile in poor working condition ; an object that emits dull, heavy noises when struck or operated
3. An aged vehicle no longer in good repair ; anything that clanks or thumps with a deep, muffled sound

Etymology: Klunker is a noise-word, and its sense of "clunker" grew from the sound. The earliest recorded uses in the source are from the 1960s, when it described a decrepit, unreliable car, and a 1961 automotive service bulletin already had a customer's "smokey klunker" making plenty of noise. The noise is the key: a machine that clanks and rattles as it runs gets its name from the clanking. The word then spread well beyond cars. In the 1980s it described an old or slow computer, and in the 1990s a programmer could call a clumsy Excel macro dialect a "stringent, top-to-bottom klunker". Its use for machines assembled from scraps followed the same logic: a patched-together bike or computer was a klunker because it looked and sounded like it was falling apart.

Synonyms: jalopy, heap, wreck, banger