apache

¹ American  

[uh-pahsh, uh-pash, a-pash] / əˈpɑʃ, əˈpæʃ, aˈpaʃ /

noun

plural

apaches

1. a Parisian gangster, rowdy, or ruffian.

---

Apache ² American  

[uh-pach-ee] / əˈpætʃ i /

noun

plural

Apaches,

plural

Apache

1. a member of an Athabascan people of the southwestern United States.

2. any of the several Athabascan languages of Arizona and the Rio Grande basin.

3. Military. a two-man U.S. Army helicopter designed to attack enemy armor with rockets or a 30mm gun and equipped for use in bad weather and in darkness.

---

adjective

1. of or relating to an Athabascan people of the southwestern United States or their language.

Apache ¹ British  

/ əˈpætʃɪ /

noun

1. a member of a North American Indian people, formerly nomadic and warlike, inhabiting the southwestern US and N Mexico

2. the language of this people, belonging to the Athapascan group of the Na-Dene phylum

---

apache ² British  

/ əˈpɑːʃ, apaʃ, -ˈpæʃ /

noun

1. a Parisian gangster or ruffian

---

Etymology

Origin of apache¹

1735–45, < French: Apache

Origin of Apache²

First recorded in 1915–20; from Mexican Spanish, perhaps from Zuni ʔa·paču “Navajos,” presumably applied formerly to the Apacheans (Navajos and Apaches) generally

Example Sentences

Two apache attack helicopters hovered over the town, despite a thick pall of smoke from tyres set ablaze by Isis to to try to obscure aerial views of the town.

From The Guardian

Advertisement Here, Mr. Shepard’s apache dance of a drama comes across not only as exciting theater but also as world-class literature, the kind that balances in-the-moment detail with an echoing sense of eternity.

From New York Times

"We have to increase their air power to support them - apache helicopters."

From BBC

He’s Dad the destroyer, who mapped out the steps for the apache dance that defines his children’s lives.

From New York Times

Sometimes they skip about as blithely as Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in “Singin’ in the Rain,” but their natural form would seem to be the apache dance, with its all-out brutality.

From New York Times