bathysphere

[bath-uh-sfeer]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bathysphere ON THESAURUS.COM

noun Oceanography.

a spherical diving apparatus from which to study deep-sea life, lowered into the ocean depths by a cable.

RELATED WORDS

bathyscaphe

Origin of bathysphere

First recorded in 1925–30; bathy- + -sphere

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

Examples from the Web for bathysphere

Historical Examples of bathysphere

It was not the grapple hooks from his ship, but chains—chains which the man-armed sharks were wrapping around the bathysphere.
Astounding Stories, August, 1931
Various
It was pried up, and slid off the top of the bathysphere, to crash upon the floor outside.
Astounding Stories, August, 1931
Various

British Dictionary definitions for bathysphere

bathysphere

noun

a strong steel deep-sea diving sphere, lowered by cable

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

Science definitions for bathysphere

bathysphere

[băth′ĭ-sfîr′]

A hollow, spherical steel diving chamber in which people are lowered by cable from a surface vessel to explore the ocean depths. In 1934 a bathysphere carrying William Beebe and an associate reached a record depth of over 923 m (3,028 ft). Because space in the bathysphere is cramped, dives longer than three-and-a-half hours are intolerable, and it was eventually supplanted by the bathyscaphe.