parachute

[ par-uh-shoot ]

noun

1. a folding, umbrellalike, fabric device with cords supporting a harness or straps for allowing a person, object, package, etc., to float down safely through the air from a great height, especially from an aircraft, rendered effective by the resistance of the air that expands it during the descent and reduces the velocity of its fall.
2. parachute brake.
3. Horology. a shockproofing device for the balance staff of a watch, consisting of a yielding, springlike support for the bearing at either end.
4. Informal.
   1. the aggregate of benefits, as severance pay or vacation pay, given an employee who is dismissed from a company.
   2. golden parachute.

verb (used with object)

, par·a·chut·ed, par·a·chut·ing.

1. to drop or land (troops, equipment, supplies, etc.) by parachute.

verb (used without object)

, par·a·chut·ed, par·a·chut·ing.

1. to descend by parachute.

parachute

/ ˈpærəˌʃuːt /

noun

1. 1. a device used to retard the fall of a man or package from an aircraft, consisting of a large fabric canopy connected to a harness
   2. ( as modifier ) Sometimes shortened tochute See also brake parachute

      parachute troops

verb

1. (of troops, supplies, etc) to land or cause to land by parachute from an aircraft
2. (in an election) to bring in (a candidate, esp someone well known) from outside the constituency

Derived Forms

• ˈparaˌchutist, noun

Other Words From

• para·chutic adjective
• para·chutist para·chuter noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of parachute¹

1775–85; < French, equivalent to para- para- ² + chute fall; chute ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of parachute¹

C18: from French, from para- ² + chute fall

Example Sentences

“What Chicago Public Schools is asking educators to do is like asking someone to jump out of the plane holding a blanket while a parachute is a few rows back,” Goodchild said.

From Washington Post

New Shepard autonomously steered itself back to the launchpad, while the crew capsule deployed parachutes and landed some distance away, about ten minutes after launch.

From Popular-Science

We might all feel better and more prepared with a parachute strapped to our backs, but nobody wants to pull the cord.

From Washington Blade

The two hadn’t separated, his parachute hadn’t deployed, and so he had slammed straight into the Earth.

From Popular-Science

Maybe put a parachute on it if you want to play it safe, and drive them off cliffs.

From Freakonomics

Are you the kind of criminal who steals a plane and then jumps without a parachute from high over a body of water?

From The Daily Beast

Daniel Craig, in his finest Bond dinner jacket, called at the Palace and invited her to parachute into the stadium with him.

From The Daily Beast

And for wingsuit divers, the only way flight can be “real” is if one can land without a parachute.

From The Daily Beast

The modern history of the flight, however, gets its start with Jacques-Sébastien Lenormand and his parachute in 1783.

From The Daily Beast

The second story, which really picks up steam in the latter half of the book, is the race to land without a parachute.

From The Daily Beast

A parachute-arrangement broke your speed at the bottom of the track.

From Project Gutenberg

But he must have been burned some before he jumped, for he sent me a bit of his parachute, and the silk is badly scorched.

From Project Gutenberg

You know he was falling head foremost all this time, and the parachute jerked him upright quicker than you could wink your eye.

From Project Gutenberg

Tie strings to each corner of the handkerchief, he shouted into his ear, and make a little parachute.

From Project Gutenberg

But the performance that stopped every heart and made every onlooker hold his breath was the parachute jumps.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bounce
• bound
• dive
• drop
• fall
• hop
• plummet
• skip
• surge
• take
• top
• vault