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airship

American  
[air-ship] / ˈɛərˌʃɪp /

noun

  1. a self-propelled, lighter-than-air aircraft with means of controlling the direction of flight; dirigible.

airship British  
/ ˈɛəˌʃɪp /

noun

  1. Also called: dirigible.   zeppelin.  a lighter-than-air self-propelled craft

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of airship

1810–20, for an earlier sense; air 1 + ship 1

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.

The year airships like boxkites began to darken the skies, though they hadn’t found our patch of sky yet.

From Literature

Unlike some anonymous Polymarket traders, though, the omen named for the doomed German airship couldn’t have known bombs were about to fall on Iran.

From The Wall Street Journal

In Los Angeles, the department’s airships are an often inescapable part of the city’s landscape, immortalized in both rap songs and Hollywood blockbusters.

From Los Angeles Times

Rigid, gas-filled airships known as Zeppelins conducted the first offensive missions when crews dropped bombs on England during World War I.

From The Wall Street Journal

The indicator is named after the German passenger airship that was involved in a historic disaster in 1937.

From MarketWatch

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.