What does carjack mean?
To carjack is to steal a motor vehicle directly from its driver using force, violence, or the threat of violence — typically by confronting the person at the wheel, at a stoplight or outside their home, and demanding the keys before driving away. The word is a modern American coinage, blending 'car' with 'hijack', and emerged in the early 1990s alongside growing media attention to this specific brand of street robbery. It functions chiefly as a verb ('she was carjacked outside her office'), but the derived noun 'carjacking' — meaning the act itself — is equally common, especially in journalism and police reports ('a wave of carjackings across the city'). The term carries strongly negative connotations and belongs to informal-to-neutral registers; it appears constantly in news coverage, crime statistics, and public-safety warnings. Related forms include 'carjacker', the person who commits the crime.
To steal a motor vehicle from its driver by force or the threat of force.
"Thieves attempted to carjack the delivery van while it idled at a red light."
An instance of stealing a vehicle from its driver by force.
"He recounted the carjack to police the following morning."
Rare in the plural; the gerund noun 'carjackings' is far more common when referring to multiple incidents.
"The city recorded several carjacks along that corridor last month."
The word is barely older than the crime itself — 'carjack' was coined in America in the early 1990s as a blend of 'car' and 'hijack', making it one of the youngest verbs in the dictionary.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of carjack
Carjack is a blend of 'car' and 'hijack', formed in American English in the late 20th century — it is generally dated to the early 1990s, when the crime gained widespread media attention in the United States. It follows the pattern set by earlier blends such as 'hijack' itself (origin uncertain, attested in 1920s American slang for highway robbery) and later 'skyjack'. The '-jack' element thus carries the sense of forcible seizure, making 'hijack' and 'skyjack' its closest lexical relatives.
Related word forms
How carjack is actually used
Informal to neutral register; common in news reporting and everyday speech. The noun form 'carjacking' for the act itself is very frequent, often more so than the verb. Strong negative connotations due to association with violent crime.
Easily confused with carjack
Hijacking is seizing any vehicle or transport (especially an aircraft) in transit, whereas carjacking specifically means forcing a driver out of their car and stealing it.