aeroplane - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

An aeroplane (Airbus A330)

Borrowed from French aéroplane, from Ancient Greek ἀερόπλανος (aeróplanos, “wandering in air”), from ἀήρ (aḗr, “air”) + πλάνος (plános, “wandering”). First used by Joseph Pline in an 1855 patent.[1];[2]

aeroplane (plural aeroplanes)

  1. (aviation, Commonwealth) Synonym of airplane. A powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings.
    • 1944 May 20, Russian Rhapsody, spoken by the gremlins from the Kremlin:
      Schicklgruber's aeroplanes we smash right to the ground.
  2. (Commonwealth) Synonym of airplane. A game played when spoon-feeding children.
  3. (aeronautics, archaic, obsolete) Synonym of airfoil. An aerodynamic surface.
  4. Any of various nymphalid butterflies, of various genera, having a slow gliding flight. Also called planes.

aeroplane (third-person singular simple present aeroplanes, present participle aeroplaning, simple past and past participle aeroplaned)

  1. (intransitive) To fly in an aeroplane.
  2. (transitive) To transport by aeroplane.
    • 1919, The American Angler, volume 4, page 221:
      The rod was discarded, and then, hand over hand, the prize of them all was aeroplaned to the top of the cliff.