airplane
verbEtymology From air + plane as an alteration of aeroplane.
1
To fly in an aeroplane.
2
To transport by aeroplane.
- Related terms
- aircraft, flycraft, glider, helicopter
airplane
nounUK /ˈɛəˌpleɪ̯n/ · US /ˈɛɹˌpleɪ̯n/
Etymology From air + plane as an alteration of aeroplane.
1
Canada, Philippines, US A powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings: a fixed-wing aircraft with at least one engine or electric motor.
- on an airplane
- jet airplane
1 more example
- RC airplane
2
Canada, Philippines, US, Usually One that can carry a person or persons.
- They use airplanes to deliver mail and supplies to the far northern villages.
3
Any of various small flyable objects that are notionally comparable to such aircraft but aren't powered.
- toy airplane
- paper airplane
4
Canada, Philippines, US A game to encourage small children to eat, in which the parent or carer pretends that a spoonful of food is an aircraft flying into the child's mouth; the spoonful itself.
- Near-synonym: choo-choo train
- Here comes the airplane! Open wide!
3 more examples
- So, he'd take a spoon and he'd start playing airplane, circling the spoon around in the air until it was ready to land in the runway of my mouth.1988, Matthew Linn, Sheila Fabricant, Dennis Linn, Healing the Eight Stages of Life, Paulist Press, →ISBN, page 66:
- Willis wondered what this fellow wanted to do, spoon feed him? Play airplane?1997 03, Maria Flook, Open Water, Ecco Press, →ISBN:
- For instance, Jan has taken to playing airplane with the spoon to get Charley to attend to the spoon and want to take it into his mouth.2013 May 13, Theo L. Dorpat, Michael L. Miller, Clinical Interaction and the Analysis of Meaning: A New Psychoanalytic Theory, Routledge, →ISBN:
- Derived terms
- airplane cloth, airplane ears, airplaneful, airplanelike, airplane mode, airplane ticket, airplanist, here comes the airplane, hydro-airplane, paper airplane, rubber band airplane