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preflight

American  
[pree-flahyt] / priˈflaɪt /

adjective

  1. occurring or done before a flight.

    a preflight briefing of the plane's crew.


noun

  1. a preflight briefing or a ground check, as of an airplane.

preflight British  
/ ˈpriːˈflaɪt /

adjective

  1. of or relating to the period just prior to a plane taking off

"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

Etymology

Origin of preflight

First recorded in 1920–25; pre- + flight 1

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.

What I did not know at that time was that as he ran through his preflight checklist two days before the scheduled launch date, he was evaluating the data that the IBM computer had generated.

From Literature

Then on January 27, 1967, a space flight numbered AS-204, later known as Apollo 1, was moving through its preflight tests to send the first manned space flight to the moon.

From Literature

As she had done many times in the simulator, Alesna walked me through the preflight checklist.

From The Wall Street Journal

However, during the months after returning to Earth, the length of his telomeres were discovered to be critically shorter than his preflight levels.

From Salon

Inspection of the hardware was required by the pilot during each preflight inspection and during the most recent 100-hour inspection in October 2022, according to the report.

From Seattle Times