helicopter view

British

noun

an overview of a situation without any details

"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

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Being one step removed from the loss allowed him to have "the helicopter view", he says.

From BBC

But I wanted to look at the situation from a helicopter view.

From Fox News

To create a matching “Now” image, Jean Sherrard and I got a helicopter view in late February, with him taking photographs and me shooting video.

From Seattle Times

“And if you take a helicopter view, what would we have in sport? We have several issues. It’s betting/gambling, sexism and doping. The first two issues, there are criminal laws and criminal things. So it was absolutely inevitable to bring criminal law enforcement into sport.”

From Washington Post

"I get to join the dots, I have a helicopter view of what's in place."

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023