aqualung

British  

/ ˈækwəˌlʌŋ /

noun

1. breathing apparatus used by divers, etc, consisting of a mouthpiece attached to air cylinders strapped to the back

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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.

Example Sentences

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

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

On another wall were three Scuba regulators, not aqualung types such as the boys used, but the variety that carries a full face mask through which the diver breathes.

From The Wailing Octopus by Goodwin, Harold L. (Harold Leland)

While Tony Briotti began preparations for dinner, the boys carried their aqualung equipment to the shed at the rear of the cottage and began to check it over.

From The Wailing Octopus by Goodwin, Harold L. (Harold Leland)

Instead of bothering with the snorkel, Rick kept the aqualung mouthpiece in place and swam a few feet under the surface, guiding himself by the wake of the others.

From The Wailing Octopus by Goodwin, Harold L. (Harold Leland)