radius of action

British

noun

military the maximum distance that a ship, aircraft, or land vehicle can travel from its base and return without refuelling

"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.

As oxytocin comes into sharper focus, its social radius of action turns out to have definite limits.

From New York Times • Jan. 10, 2011

The carrying-loads of air vessels and their radius of action are also limited.

From Time Magazine Archive

Lightly armored, many of the cruisers sacrifice radius of action for speed as high as 40 knots for the light types.

From Time Magazine Archive

The effective radius of action would be small�1,000 yds. or so�because neutrons are rapidly absorbed by the surrounding air.

From Time Magazine Archive

One of the chief difficulties was limitation in size, and consequently in radius of action, of aircraft employed from carriers or the decks of battleships.

From Aviation in Peace and War by Sykes, Frederick Hugh, Sir

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