aqualung
Britishnoun
Explanation
If your life's ambition is to live underwater like a mermaid, you'd better get practicing on how to use an aqualung, an underwater breathing system. An aqualung is a kind of diving equipment that lets you breathe under water. It's an air tank strapped to your back plus a mouthpiece that lets you breathe in that air. Its name was the brand name of the first ever underwater breathing apparatus, what we now call scuba equipment. There have been lots of developments in scuba diving since then, but many of them are based on the aqualung.
Vocabulary lists containing aqualung
Elements of the Universe: Aqua ("Water")
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: aqua
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At ten fathoms, with a tank of oxygen on her back and her teeth clamped on an aqualung, Jane is not at her best.
From Time Magazine Archive
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In The Silent World, a French navy captain named Jacques-Yves Cousteau, inventor of the "aqualung," describes his underwater adventures with a scientist's care and a poet's feeling.
From Time Magazine Archive
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They launched floats, placed aqualung mouthpieces on top of their masks, and swam parallel to the beach.
From The Wailing Octopus by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin
He was suddenly impatient to get going, to put on his aqualung and explore the reef from top to bottom.
From The Wailing Octopus by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin
Rick and Scotty had become underwater enthusiasts on their return from the Philippines, and both had aqualung equipment that would take them to twenty fathoms without difficulty.
From The Wailing Octopus by Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.