volplane
Americanverb (used without object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of volplane
1905–10; < French vol plané glided flight, equivalent to vol flight (noun derivative of voler < Latin volāre to fly) + plané, past participle of planer to glide ( see plane 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.
See Examples For:
Meanwhile Sir Alan Cobham had been forced by a faulty spark plug to volplane to earth near Nuneaton.
From Time Magazine Archive
One was still maintaining a terrific altitude, and showed no signs of making a volplane.
From The Submarine Hunters A Story of the Naval Patrol Work in the Great War by Hodgson, Edward S.
The force catapulted me across the space of the room like a volplane.
From Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1930 by Bates, Harry
They were then at an altitude of a mile, and inability to start the motor made it necessary for them to volplane to the earth.
From The Boy Volunteers with the French Airman by Ward, Kenneth
After I had been doing circuits for some time and had begun to have a little confidence in myself, I decided that it was necessary to do a volplane.
From The War in the Air; Vol. 1 The Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force by Raleigh, Walter Alexander, Sir
He had crossed the landing field afoot and had just reached the belt of trees when the machine volplaned to the field behind him.
From The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border by Breckenridge, Gerald
Others in long slants volplaned toward the hidden sea, miles below the cloud-plain.
From The Flying Legion by England, George Allan
Against the blue sky great orange-headed vultures balanced and volplaned; yellow-gold kiskadees shrieked blatantly, and, silhouetted against the green fronds, smote both eye and ear.
From Jungle Peace by Beebe, William
She volplaned, flattened out a thousand feet or so above the island, circled as the searchlight, losing her when she dipped, sought her again with wide sweeping gestures of its accusing white finger.
From The Thunder Bird by Bower, B. M.
That is, he volplaned, banked as much as he thought wise, and flattened out and yelled, "I'm a rider of the sky!" just as he had planned.
From Skyrider by Fischer, Anton Otto
We have the devotees of St. Vitus' dance called Jazz . . . volplaning down the descending scale.
From Time Magazine Archive
He must, to keep from volplaning to the infinite, go down and gnaw his daily bone.
From Unicorns by Huneker, James
As for wheeling, volplaning, spiraling or doing anything that occasioned quick action on his part with rudder or planes, he was nearly helpless.
From Our Pilots in the Air by Brown, William Perry
"Oh! that's what they call volplaning," he hastened to say, while he watched the coming of the air craft with eagerness.
From The Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron by Shaler, Robert
The Aviatik was volplaning down in a wide spiral now, and above it the relentless pursuer poised like a hawk.
From With Haig on the Somme by Webb, Archibald
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.
