parachute
[par-uh-shoot]
- a folding, umbrellalike, fabric device with cords supporting a harness or straps for allowing a person, object, package, etc., to float down safely through the air from a great height, especially from an aircraft, rendered effective by the resistance of the air that expands it during the descent and reduces the velocity of its fall.
- parachute brake.
- Horology. a shockproofing device for the balance staff of a watch, consisting of a yielding, springlike support for the bearing at either end.
- Informal.
- the aggregate of benefits, as severance pay or vacation pay, given an employee who is dismissed from a company.
- golden parachute.
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- to drop or land (troops, equipment, supplies, etc.) by parachute.
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- to descend by parachute.
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Origin of parachute
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for parachute
Contemporary Examples
Are you the kind of criminal who steals a plane and then jumps without a parachute from high over a body of water?
I Felt Like Showering After the First-Person Sex in ‘Grand Theft Auto’Alec Kubas-Meyer
November 22, 2014
Daniel Craig, in his finest Bond dinner jacket, called at the Palace and invited her to parachute into the stadium with him.
Imagining Prince Charles as King Makes All of Britain Wish They Could Leave Like ScotlandClive Irving
September 17, 2014
And for wingsuit divers, the only way flight can be “real” is if one can land without a parachute.
The modern history of the flight, however, gets its start with Jacques-Sébastien Lenormand and his parachute in 1783.
The second story, which really picks up steam in the latter half of the book, is the race to land without a parachute.
Historical Examples
He knew he was falling, jerking down as the parachute ripped on the boughs.
Raiders InvisibleDesmond Winter Hall
This was attached to a parachute which, if the emergency arose, could be dropped.
Lords of the StratosphereArthur J. Burks
He came down by parachute, without the ball in which he should have sealed himself.
Lords of the StratosphereArthur J. Burks
He had no parachute and no life belt or Mae West suit to float him.
A Yankee Flier Over BerlinAl Avery
Your hand weapons and food supplies will be dropped by parachute as we leave.
The Space RoverEdwin K. Sloat
parachute
- a device used to retard the fall of a man or package from an aircraft, consisting of a large fabric canopy connected to a harness
- (as modifier)parachute troops Sometimes shortened to: chute See also brake parachute
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- (of troops, supplies, etc) to land or cause to land by parachute from an aircraft
- (in an election) to bring in (a candidate, esp someone well known) from outside the constituency
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Word Origin
C18: from French, from para- ² + chute fall
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for parachute
n.
1784 (the year the use of one first was attempted, in Paris), from French parachute, literally "that which protects against a fall," hybrid coined by French aeronaut François Blanchard (1753-1809) from para- "defense against" (see para- (2)) + chute "a fall" (see chute).
PARACHUTE, a kind of large and strong umbrella, contrived to break a person's fall from an airballoon, should any accident happen to the balloon at a high elevation. ["Supplement to the Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences," Philadelphia, 1803]
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v.
1807, from parachute (n.). Related: Parachuted; parachuting.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper