drive-in
/ˈdɹaɪvˌɪn/
drive-in adjective: of an establishment, providing service to patrons who remain in their automobiles and partake while parked.
Adjective
drive-in (not comparable)
Noun
drive-in (plural drive-ins)
- An outdoor cinema where movies are projected onto a large screen and patrons watch from inside their vehicles, listening either by a speaker or a designated radio frequency.
- Owners and sponsors of the drive-ins feel that in three-quarters of their patrons they have tapped a practically prehistoric strain of human—the hitherto non-movie-goer.1975, David Manning White, Popular Culture, page 154
- This fact may seem surprising since the major movie studios, reluctant to risk cheapening their images by releasing first-run films to drive-ins, made only older movies affordable to drive-in operators.2000, Mary Alampi, Dun & Bradstreet/Gale Group Industry Handbook, page 26
- Synonyms:
- drive-in cinema, drive-in movie, drive-in theatre
- A restaurant where patrons remain in their vehicles to consume their meals; the meal may be ordered and delivered to one's vehicle by a carhop waiter; or may require patrons to use a service counter. The cars in the parking lot serve as the patrons' dining room, there being a lack of dining rooms and tables.
- The teenagers went down to the drive-in to order some hamburgers and fries.
- 1965 May 7, Don Moser, The nightmare of life with Billy, LIFE, page 101,
- Synonyms:
- drive-in restaurant
- A drive-through restaurant where patrons remain in their vehicles and order food and beverages via a speaker phone; the meal is delivered by a service window accessible by car.
- Even before franchising genius Ray A. Kroc approached Mac and Dick McDonald to become the licensing agent for their small San Bernardino (Calif.) restaurant, scores of drive-in operators had begun copying McDonald′s speedy burger-fries-and-shake menus. Love contends that Kroc′s success came largely...1986, Business Week, numbers 2967-2978, page 136
- For during the fabled Indiana blizzard of ′78, Tom found himself trapped inside the kitchen of the drive-in for three days before his family, and—more to the point—his customers, could reach him.2006, Reid Duffy, Reid Duffy's Guide to Indiana's Favorite Restaurants: With a Recipe Sampler, page 135
Examples of drive-in in a sentence
- At the end of June 1997, there were 325 cinema sites and 28 drive-in sites in Australia.2000, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2000 Year Book Australia, page 346:
- Love contends that Kroc′s success came largely from his commitment to automating the preparation of drive-in meals.1986, Business Week, numbers 2967-2978, page 136:
Synonyms of drive-in
Forms of drive-in
| plural | drive-ins |
|---|
Origin of drive-in
Deverbal from drive in.
Words formed from drive-in
Phrases with drive-in
Questions about drive-in
- What does drive-in mean?
- Drive-in means of an establishment, providing service to patrons who remain in their automobiles and partake while parked.
- How do you use drive-in in a sentence?
- At the end of June 1997, there were 325 cinema sites and 28 drive-in sites in Australia.
- What part of speech is drive-in?
- Drive-in can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce drive-in?
- Drive-in is pronounced /ˈdɹaɪvˌɪn/.
Words near drive-in in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: drive-in (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 drive-in.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-drive-in.wav.
Cite this entry: “drive-in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drive-in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.