four-speed

English

Alternative forms

  • four speed

Etymology

The sense specific to a manual transmission came from an era when manual transmissions in passenger cars were usually four-speeds but automatics were usually three-speeds or two-speeds.

Noun

four-speed (countable and uncountable, plural four-speeds)

  1. (attributive, uncountable, of a transmission) Having four forward speeds.
    My car has a four-speed transmission. It is not as efficient as my daughter's five-speed.
    • 1958 April, “Diesel Railbus for British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 275:
      Power is derived from a British United Traction Limited "A"-type 150-h.p. six-cylinder horizontal diesel engine; this drives through a fluid flywheel, and thence through a free wheel unit to a four-speed epicyclic gearbox.
  2. A transmission that has four forward speeds (it might or might not be a manual transmission); (metonymic) a vehicle with such a transmission.
    four-speed manual;   four-speed automatic
    1. (chiefly historical, informal, specifically) A manual transmission with four forward speeds; (metonymic) a vehicle with such a transmission.
      Hyponyms: four-on-the-floor, four on the floor
      A: Was your dad's Mustang a four-speed? B: No, it was an automatic.

Coordinate terms

  • two-speed, three-speed, five-speed, six-speed
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