spare tire

noun

1. a tire used or kept available as an emergency replacement on a vehicle.
2. Informal. excess fat around the waistline.

Word History and Origins

Origin of spare tire¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Idioms and Phrases

Fat around one's middle, as in He's determined to lose ten pounds and that spare tire he's acquired . This expression transfers the term for an extra tire carried in cars in case of a flat tire to excess fat around the waist. [ Colloquial ; mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

The truck’s full-size spare tire stows in a bin beneath the bed.

From Popular-Science

Inside the engine compartment, underneath the spare tire in the trunk, and any junctures where the car is put together might accumulate outside trash that doesn’t belong.

From Popular-Science

It’s gonna help us get by, but if we think that we can try to drive with a spare tire for too long, the car is going to break down somewhere else.

From Time

The well where your spare tire lives is perfect for a small battery or nonessential gear.

From Outside Online

The reason I carry around the (defensible, I tell myself) spare tire that I do is cheese.

From The Daily Beast

I managed to rank some one out of a spare tire and started back again.

From Project Gutenberg

Rupert was already leaning over the back, dragging free a spare tire; Gerard slipped out of his seat.

From Project Gutenberg

There is a step on each side of the spare tire, one man on each one.

From Project Gutenberg

He throbbed fiercely just behind the spare tire, with his face bent down into a rich travelling cloud of gasoline exhaust.

From Project Gutenberg

We limped in, indeed, for we211 had had one of our frequent blowouts, and had no spare tire.

From Project Gutenberg