apache

[ uh-pahsh, uh-pash; French a-pash ]

/ əˈpɑʃ, əˈpæʃ; French aˈpaʃ /

noun, plural a·paches [uh-pah-shiz, uh-pash-iz; French a-pash] /əˈpɑ ʃɪz, əˈpæʃ ɪz; French aˈpaʃ/.

a Parisian gangster, rowdy, or ruffian.

Nearby words

ap star, ap-, ap., apa, apace, apache, apache dance, apache plume, apachean, apaches, apalachee bay

Origin of apache

1735–45, Americanism; < French: Apache

Definition for apaches (2 of 2)

Apache

[ uh-pach-ee ]

/ əˈpætʃ i /

noun, plural A·pach·es, (especially collectively) A·pach·e.

a member of an Athabaskan people of the southwestern U.S.

any of the several Athabaskan languages of Arizona and the Rio Grande basin.

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.

Origin of Apache

1915–20; < Mexican Spanish, perhaps < Zuni ʔa·paču Navajos, presumably applied formerly to the Apacheans (Navajos and Apaches) generally

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for apaches

But the Apaches are short range and need maintenance troops to deploy with them into a location within Iraq itself.
Air Force Pilots Say They're Flying Blind Against ISIS|Dave Majumdar|October 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
One pilot friend in Zwara pointed out that just “two Apaches,” attack helicopters, would intimidate the militias into a ceasefire.
It’s Not the USA that Made Libya the Disaster it is Today|Ann Marlowe|August 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Earlier this year, army Apaches shot up several convoys that refused to stop while navigating mountainous dunes near the border.
On the Contraband Trail With Libya’s Gun Smugglers|Peter Schwartzstein|June 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Apaches used what was once a marshy ciénaga as a water hole for centuries.
Big-Sky West Texas: A Road Trip Through Hidden America|Condé Nast Traveler|March 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Not long after the Spanish conquistadores explored the region for gold, they began snatching Apaches and other natives as slaves.
The Bin Laden of His Day? A New Biography of Geronimo|Marc Wortman|December 5, 2012|DAILY BEAST
One hunter who escaped the ambush reported that an overwhelming number of Apaches were in the wooded hills.
The Pinos Altos Story|Dorothy Watson
This, too, may have been by the order of the Government, but the Apaches do not understand it.
Geronimo's Story of His Life|Geronimo
Individually, I succeeded in making friends with most of these Apaches.
Forty Years Among the Indians|Daniel W. Jones
Perhaps the Navaho and Apaches never had totemic names for their exogamous local groups.
Method in the Study of Totemism|Andrew Lang
Besides the risk of encountering the Apaches, there was the ever-present peril from wild beasts and venomous serpents.
Through Apache Lands|R. H. Jayne

British Dictionary definitions for apaches (1 of 2)

apache

/ (əˈpɑːʃ, -ˈpæʃ, French apaʃ) /

noun

a Parisian gangster or ruffian

Word Origin for apache

from French: Apache

British Dictionary definitions for apaches (2 of 2)

Apache

/ (əˈpætʃɪ) /

noun

plural Apaches or Apache a member of a North American Indian people, formerly nomadic and warlike, inhabiting the southwestern US and N Mexico

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

Word Origin for Apache

from Mexican Spanish, probably from Zuñi Apachu, literally: enemy

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

Word Origin and History for apaches

Apache

1745, from American Spanish (1598), probably from Yavapai (a Yuman language) 'epache "people." Sometimes derived from Zuni apachu "enemy" (cf. F.W. Hodge, "American Indians," 1907), but this seems to have been the Zuni name for the Navajo.

French journalistic sense of "Parisian gangster or thug" first attested 1902. Apache dance was the World War I-era equivalent of 1990s' brutal "slam dancing." Fenimore Cooper's Indian novels were enormously popular in Europe throughout the 19c., and comparisons of Cooper's fictional Indian ways in the wilderness and underworld life in European cities go back to Dumas' "Les Mohicans de Paris" (1854-1859). It is probably due to the imitations of Cooper (amounting almost to plagiarisms) by German author Karl May (1842-1912) that Apaches replaced Mohicans in popular imagination. Also cf. Mohawk.

Culture definitions for apaches

Apaches

[ (uh-pach-eez) ]

A tribe of Native Americans who live in the southwestern United States. Geronimo was an Apache.