automatic pilot

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noun

Aeronautics.Also called automatic, autopilot, gyropilot, robot. an airborne electronic control system that automatically maintains a preset heading and attitude.

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Idioms for automatic pilot

on automatic pilot, functioning in an unthinking or reflexive manner.

Origin of automatic pilot

First recorded in 1915–20

Words nearby automatic pilot

automatic exposure, automatic focus, automatic frequency control, automatic gain control, automaticity, automatic pilot, automatic pistol, automatic redial, automatic repeat, automatic rifle, automatic tracking

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

Example sentences from the Web for automatic pilot

Hovering above the scene, commandos in helicopters were poised with automatic rifles.
France Kills Charlie Hebdo Murderers|Nico Hines|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The Air Force has about seven pilots for every eight drone pilot slots, in other words.
Exclusive: U.S. Drone Fleet at ‘Breaking Point,’ Air Force Says|Dave Majumdar|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Investigators will focus on whether the sudden emergency was so extreme that no degree of pilot skill would have helped.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?|Clive Irving|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
At such a moment, the pilot has no resources other than his own instincts and experience.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?|Clive Irving|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST

By 2011, Airbus was working on a program to replicate these conditions in a flight simulator for use in pilot training.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?|Clive Irving|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
In the same way the technical form and mechanism of production were presumed to respond to an automatic stimulus.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
The tall, lean youngster wore a junior pilot's bands on the sleeves of his blue uniform.
Fee of the Frontier|Horace Brown Fyfe
The Dimbula picked up her pilot and came in covered with salt and red rust.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II|Rudyard Kipling
This automatic suitable bass device does not interfere with the normal use of the stop-keys of the pedal department by hand.
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building|George Laing Miller
It was not purposely contrived, it was in automatic obedience to deeper impulses than she knew.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood

British Dictionary definitions for automatic pilot

automatic pilot

noun

Also called: autopilot a device that automatically maintains an aircraft on a preset course

on automatic pilot informal acting without conscious thought because of tiredness, shock, or familiarity with the task being performed

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

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automatic pilot

noun

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British Dictionary definitions for automatic pilot

noun

MEANINGS

WORD GAMES

LEARN

WRITING

WORD OF THE DAY

automatic pilot

noun

QUIZZES

QUIZ YOURSELF ON “ITS” VS. “IT’S”!

Idioms for automatic pilot

Origin of automatic pilot

Words nearby automatic pilot

Words related to automatic pilot

Example sentences from the Web for automatic pilot

British Dictionary definitions for automatic pilot

noun