hovercraft
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hovercraft
Explanation
A vehicle that hovers while traveling over land and water is called a hovercraft. Do you need to deliver a batch of cookies to the far side of the lake and down a dirt road? Better take the hovercraft! Although it's not always obvious when you watch a hovercraft move, it does actually hover above the ground or water surface while it's moving. Hovercrafts use air pressure and currents to glide freely over difficult terrain, including mud and ice. As it rides on a "cushion of air," a hovercraft is also known as an "air-cushion vehicle" or "ACV." It takes an actual aircraft pilot to operate one.
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.
The series 'How it works' had titles as diverse as Television, The Hovercraft and Farm Machinery.
From BBC • Mar. 5, 2015
If motorcades can't beat the crawl, then ordinary mortals had best sit back, turn up the stereo and wait patiently for the age of Hovercraft and rocket belts.
From Time Magazine Archive
But at the same time, the Iranians have deployed some of their jet fighters and Hovercraft to southern Iran at the neck of the Strait of Hormuz.
From Time Magazine Archive
A second alternative is a system of cruise missiles that could be mounted on ships, Hovercraft or trucks.
From Time Magazine Archive
You never expected Hovercraft to parlay it up, through their connections in the Category Military Department, to a divisional magnitude fracas which you simply aren't large enough to afford.
From Mercenary by Birmingham, Lloyd
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
