fender bender

noun

: a minor automobile accident

Examples of fender bender in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Duncan, who still has his hair and his wits, and tooled around behind the wheel of a PT Cruiser until a fender bender last year, was ten years old when the market crashed. Charles Bethea, New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2025 The aviation fender bender comes as the airport is coping with a series of recent incidents, including a mid-air collision in January that left 67 people dead and a military flyover last month that came dangerously close to a departing plane. Alexandra Skores, CNN Money, 10 Apr. 2025 The minor fender bender happened at 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at an intersection in Columbus, Bartholomew County Sheriff Chris Lane said in a Facebook post. Mitchell Willetts, Kansas City Star, 26 Mar. 2025 Get enough data, do some math, and scientists can figure out with astounding precision whether the Earth will suffer a cosmic fender bender decades into the future. Bryan Walsh, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018 See All Example Sentences for fender bender

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1962, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of fender bender was circa 1962

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Fender bender.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fender%20bender. Accessed 18 Apr. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on fender bender

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!