noun

• 1A thing used for transporting people or goods, especially on land, such as a car, lorry, or cart.

  ‘the vehicle was sent skidding across the road’

  More example sentences

  • ‘a heavy goods vehicle’
  • ‘One part of the terminal is onshore, and land transport vehicles will be unloaded there.’
  • ‘Possible modes of transport include ambulances, local transport vehicles, military vehicles, helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, and rescue boats.’
  • ‘Many buses and large transport vehicles were sent to evacuate the community.’
  • ‘Flatbed trucks transporting armoured vehicles pulled out of another base.’
  • ‘The scheme involves track large enough to take huge trains and wagons, which would carry heavy goods vehicles, taking lorries off the congested motorway system.’
  • ‘Company bosses said the payment was because they accepted that they should try to minimise the impact of quarry vehicles where heavy lorries used village roads.’
  • ‘Officials from the Ministry of Transport want heavy vehicles to also be held to the same low exhaust emission standards as cars.’
  • ‘Checkpoints sprung up on roads and police pulled aside vehicles ranging from hay carts to ribbon - decked wedding cars for checks.’
  • ‘The purpose of a fire lane is to regulate travel over district land by vehicles such as ambulances, and to provide a means of partial access for private owners.’
  • ‘The council wants to build a car park for 27 vehicles on the land behind the club to encourage shoppers and tourists to spend time in the town.’
  • ‘First reports to the police indicated three vehicles, including the lorry and Corsa, were involved in the incident.’
  • ‘A number of attractions are planned involving transport from vintage vehicles to hot-air balloon rides.’
  • ‘Most of them drive fork lift trucks, farm machinery, heavy goods vehicles, coaches, or buses.’
  • ‘Landowners are worried about the impact of trail bikes and four-wheel vehicles on their land.’
  • ‘According to police, the two vehicles collided as the lorry turned right into West Street.’
  • ‘Margaret enjoyed a long life and saw many changes in her lifetime, particularly on the land where machine-driven vehicles replaced much of the manual labour of the past.’
  • ‘The Convention, like our Act, deals with vessels, aircraft and land vehicles, but puts them into separate sub-articles.’
  • ‘As discussed in the accompanying article, land vehicles such as buses can navigate using dead reckoning.’
  • ‘So did the early Indo Europeans till the land and possess wheeled vehicles?’
  • ‘Under current conditions, the need has been for small robotic vehicles rather than a vehicle to transport humans.’
  • ‘He explained to the Western People that an old dinghy, which has been patched up by his son on the morning of the accident, proved to be the rescue vehicle for the drowning family.’

  Synonyms

  automobile, motor vehicle, motorized vehicle, means of transport, conveyance, machine

  View synonyms

• 2A thing used to express, embody, or fulfil something.

  ‘I use paint as a vehicle for my ideas’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Part of the reason for this is that the federal government's power to accede to international treaties has on occasion been a vehicle for increasing federal power.’
  • ‘And without a doubt, the GOP has merely become a vehicle for unbridled corporate power.’
  • ‘And yet none of the current candidates has been capable of becoming the vehicle for those forces.’
  • ‘One is nationalism: the basic force which was the vehicle for the revolutions.’
  • ‘He has previously peppered speeches with claims of being a vehicle for divine power.’
  • ‘Wine can either be a way for people to enjoy each other's company with a little heightened intensity, or it can be used as a vehicle for power.’
  • ‘But if there are no identities, why, in that case, is the struggle for power always a vehicle for instrumentalisation?’
  • ‘Handmade beaded lampshades became a vehicle for artistic fulfilment.’
  • ‘Its aim is to act as a vehicle for teenagers to work intensively with professional practitioners in the arts.’
  • ‘Instead, they should be viewed as a vehicle for instilling loyalty in the company for the medium to long term, encouraging employees to ride out short - term volatility.’
  • ‘But those were explorations of a percussion instrument, not a vehicle for melodic lines.’
  • ‘The bare bones instrumentation is a perfect vehicle for her, and her timing and feel are just right.’
  • ‘Political reform should be sweeping and thorough, not a quick fix as a vehicle for maximizing votes in general elections slated for April, 2004.’
  • ‘Four computer terminals connected to the internet provide the vehicle for people to carry out school work, general internet inquiries, business work and even shopping.’
  • ‘‘Without doubt humour is a vehicle for exposing prejudices but I am against jokes that normalise violence,’ Cara says.’
  • ‘They are alarmed even though religious values are serving more as a brake on cultural reform than a vehicle for overturning the left's past advances.’
  • ‘Our task is surely not to overthrow globalization, but to capture and use it as a vehicle for humanity's first global democratic revolution.’
  • ‘The difficulty is compounded by the fact that the basic vehicle for Shankar's classical style of sitar playing is the improvised raga, which might easily extend for half an hour or more.’
  • ‘For her, the vehicle for the transformation of the deprived woman into an independent individual and in most cases the breadwinner of the family has been teaching.’
  • ‘The aim is to promote forestry as a vehicle for rural development, environmental improvement, wild life conservation and the provision of an amenity.’

  Synonyms

  channel, medium, means, means of expression, agency, agent, instrument, mechanism, organ, apparatus, structure, machine, machinery

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  1. 2.1A substance that facilitates the use of a drug, pigment, or other material mixed with it.
     ‘casein was used as a vehicle for pigments by the medieval painters’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The pigments, applied with water as a vehicle, are bound by the carbonation of the slaked lime in the fresh plaster.’
     • ‘The pill is unfortunately too expensive to serve as a food preserver, but researchers are already working on a cheaper nitric oxide vehicle.’
     • ‘On the other hand, aerosolized particles that circumvent the blood-brain barrier might someday serve as delivery vehicles for drugs.’
     • ‘Such liposomes are in current therapeutic use as vehicles for in-vivo drug delivery.’

• 3A film, television programme, song, etc. that is intended to display the leading performer to the best advantage.

  ‘a vehicle for a star who was one of Hollywood's hottest properties’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Where these films went wrong and the original Carry On films went right, is that most of the modern crop of British comedy films are star vehicles as opposed to ensemble pieces.’
  • ‘It might have been, so rumour had it, a film vehicle for those Latino leading ladies Madonna and Jennifer Lopez.’
  • ‘The songs are vehicles for James' expressiveness and storytelling.’
  • ‘Coward wrote the comedy as a star vehicle, with no less a man than himself in mind for the central role of Garry Essendine.’
  • ‘However, the stage has remained his first love and with Jekyll and Hyde, you get the feeling he believes he has found the perfect vehicle for his considerable acting and vocal talents.’
  • ‘In contrast to the thundering horde on stage in The Crucible, Lotte is a vehicle for one actress, in this case, Zsigovics' spouse, Bobo Vian.’
  • ‘K Street is a natural vehicle for Clooney's talents.’
  • ‘Fed up with television executives and studios, the star of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers set up the website last month as a vehicle for his humour and personal philosophy.’
  • ‘Har Mar, meanwhile, still relatively unknown in this country, has cleverly made the Vladivar ads into a vehicle for selling his own persona as much as the product.’

• 4A privately controlled company through which an individual or organization conducts a particular kind of business, especially investment.

  ‘Most companies offer investment vehicles, such as mutual funds, that are already managed by experienced and qualified money managers.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Residential property has been, for many decades in Ireland, the investment vehicle of choice for private investors.’
  • ‘Malone confirmed that an investment vehicle representing a group of private individuals was the new shareholder in the company.’
  • ‘A spread of funds or different investment vehicles is a better approach to take, provided it doesn't mean you are paying significantly more in fees and charges.’
  • ‘The fund manager reckons that these investment vehicles have a coherent overall asset allocation strategy.’
  • ‘If you want to create enough wealth to pass on to your children, then you have to invest in financial vehicles that produce long-term value.’
  • ‘Why can the government not provide the investment vehicle - which could then provide a pension fund that does not penalise you when you move jobs as is now common.’
  • ‘Hedge funds are pooled investment vehicles which aim to make money for their investors regardless of whether shares rise or fall.’
  • ‘Hedge funds are still largely misunderstood as investment vehicles.’
  • ‘There are five primary investment vehicles in the managed-money environment, each offering different features and benefits.’
  • ‘These investment vehicles can experience market fluctuations and sometimes provide returns below the overall market.’
  • ‘But the issue here is on whose directions the investment vehicle was structured.’
  • ‘If you are intrigued by hedge funds, and want to know how these investment vehicles seem to make money from thin air, then the following four books are worth putting on your reading list this Christmas.’
  • ‘Hedge funds have been extremely successful investment vehicles, even through the recent market turmoil.’
  • ‘It's just a question as to what investment vehicles are best for each individual.’
  • ‘Hedge funds are being promoted as the latest attractive investment vehicle for wealthy individuals.’
  • ‘Successive British governments have exposed millions of people to the vagaries of the stock market through private pensions and vehicles like ISAs.’
  • ‘Two common repayment vehicles are tax-free share ISAs and personal pensions.’
  • ‘Trackers don't employ high-priced managers, which means that their charges are far lower than most investment vehicles.’
  • ‘If you choose to have an interest-only mortgage, you'll need to pay into some form of investment vehicle that will produce a lump sum to pay off your mortgage at the end of its term.’