thruster
Americannoun
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a person or thing that thrusts.
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Fox Hunting. a rider who keeps in the front of the field.
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Aerospace. a small rocket attached to a spacecraft and used to control its attitude or translational motion.
noun
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a person or thing that thrusts
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Also called: vernier rocket. a small rocket engine, esp one used to correct the altitude or course of a spacecraft
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an auxiliary propeller on a ship, capable of acting athwartships
Etymology
Origin of thruster
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.
Researchers are aiming for levels between 500 kilowatts and 1 megawatt per thruster in the coming years.
From Science Daily • May 6, 2026
The quick and dirty alternative would be to “point the thing down and fire the thruster, which would basically produce an instantaneous reentry.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 19, 2025
They might get more interesting again if the young thruster Lennon Miller keeps progressing so rapidly.
From BBC • Nov. 19, 2024
The plume of debris, in turn, acted like a rocket thruster, providing an extra push in the opposite direction, slowing the asteroid.
From Salon • May 16, 2024
The thruster was so close now, just below and to his left, its roar the loudest thing Mark had ever heard.
From "The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Book Four; Origin)" by James Dashner
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.
